Right to water: global water action platform discussed at World Social Forum

Updated - Thursday 07 April 2005

At the end of the 5th annual World Social Forum (WSF) in Porto Alegre, Brazil, a draft global water action platform was debated. More than 32 water-related workshops were organised during the WSF, which took place 26-31 January 2005 and attracted 120,000 delegates from civil society groups and activist movements. One of the workshops discussed the need for a United Nations charter or treaty on the right to water. While there was general support for a UN charter, one of the delegates, Motswena Mhlope from Botswana, suggested that national campaigns to get the right to water enshrined in constitutions might be more effective. Prior to the WSF, the inter-American water activist network Red VIDA (Vigilancia Interamericana para el Derecho y Desarrollo del Agua) had developed a three-pronged strategy:

  1. challenging privatisation through campaigns focused on transnationals, especially Suez, international financial institutions, and their national and local “accomplices”;
  2. defending public water systems and developing new models of democratic water governance and management with social responsibility and citizen oversight; and
  3. expanding its membership and building international alliances with other networks and organisations.

Website: World Social Forum ; Right to Water

Related news: World Water Forum: right to water/anti-privatisation movement prepares strategy, Source, 29 Dec 2004

Contact: Water for All Campaign, Public Citizen, cmep@citizen.org, http://www.citizen.org/cmep/Water/

Source: Currents, Feb 2005 ; Zarina Geloo, IPS/TerraViva, 28 Jan 2005 ; Choike, Jan 2005

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