[E-rundbrief] Info 376 - World Water Forum fails.

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 376: World Water Forum "fails". NGOs active 
against privatization and for public sector water programs.

Bad Ischl, 28.3.2006

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

===========================================================

World Water Forum "fails"

Numerous activist groups and NGOs have jointly condemned what they 
describe as the "failure" of last week's World Water Forum in Mexico 
City, saying that its closing declaration offers proof of its 
incapacity to tackle the world's water crisis.

"The emptiness of the closing declaration is demonstrated by the 
absence of fundamental principles, especially the recognition and 
enforcement of the human right to water" said Anil Naidoo of one such 
group, the Blue Planet Project.

This failure to provide real solutions should be no surprise, given 
that the World Water Council, which controls the World Water Forum, 
exists to promote private sector water management. Activist groups 
campaigning to defend the public's right to access to usable water 
have call for the failed World Water Forum to be replaced by a 
UN-hosted process.

"The forum organisers, like the World Water Council and the World 
Bank, have been determined to keep private sector management on the 
agenda. There has been no serious assessment of the privatisation 
debacle, and poor countries continue to be at the mercy of 
international financial institutions with a strong pro-privatisation 
agenda," said Vicky Cann of the World Development Movement.

Despite the efforts of the Forum organisers and Mexican government to 
stifle debate, deep splits between governments emerged. A bloc of 
Latin American countries has challenged the imposition of a false 
consensus, for example by expressing strong concerns about the 
inclusion of water in free trade agreements.

By contrast to the vacuous WWF closing declaration, parallel events 
made clear proposals on how to achieve the Millennium Development 
Goals on water, which are to halve by 2015 the proportion of people 
who are unable to reach, or to afford, safe drinking water, and to 
stop the unsustainable exploitation of water resources, by developing 
water management strategies at the regional, national and local 
levels, which promote both equitable access and adequate supplies. 
They emphasised the recognition and enforcement of the human right to 
water delivered by publicly managed utilities, and urged governmental 
support for the development of public-public partnerships.

A growing number of developing countries' governments are already 
embracing ambitious public sector water programmes. The latest to do 
this, Argentina, this week announced its complete departure from the 
failed public-private partnership model of the last decade and its 
choice for progressive public water reforms.

26.3.2006

http://www.spectrezine.org/weblog/?p=196


---

     Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
     Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
     Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
     Wolfgangerstr. 26, A-4820 Bad Ischl, Austria,
     fon: +43 6132 24590, Informationen/ informations,
     Impressum in: http://www.begegnungszentrum.at