(Business in Cameroon) - On February 20, 2018, Paul Biya officially ended the privatization of water production and distribution in Cameroon. That day, a presidential decree was signed to reorganize Cameroon Water Utilities (CAMWATER) which was till then in charge of drinking water management.  The company is now in charge of the production and distribution in urban and semi-urban areas.

Indeed, for ten years now, Camerounaise des eaux (CDE), a private consortium of ONEP, MEDZ, DELTA Holding and INGEMA, has been in charge of the production and distribution. After these years of privatization, the result was not that bright (the water service interruptions have been more frequent in Yaoundé in the past few months). The government then decided to end the privatization and return the water sector to a public company as had been the case for decades.

For the record, water production and distribution service was taken care of by Société Nationale des eaux du Cameroun (Snec), before it was privatized in the 2000s

Brice R. Mbodiam