Zoe Kenny
On March 16-22, representatives of 148 countries converged in Mexico City for the fourth World Water Forum. The first WWF was held in Morocco in 1997 and is an initiative of the World Water Council (WWC), which describes its mandate as to "facilitate the efficient conservation, protection, development, planning, management and use of water in all its dimensions on an environmentally sustainable basis for the benefit of all life on earth".
However, critics accuse the WWC and the forum of being a battering ram to achieve the privatisation of the world's water resources. In an article posted on Upsidedownworld.com on March 19, Jeff Conant, who coordinates the Environmental Health Book Project, described the WWF as a "free trade fair, corporate expo, and a platform for the corporate water sector to set an agenda for the coming years. The President of the World Water Council, Rene Coulomb, is also President of Suez, one of the world's top three water companies." The WWF is co-sponsored by the World Bank and Coca-Cola.
In response to this corporate agenda, a demonstration organised by the Mexican Coalition for the Right to Water and international coalition the Friends of the Right to Water on the opening day of the forum attracted 20,000 protesters, who marched through Mexico City. An alternative forum was also organised, attracting at least 1000 participants. These events demanded that the WWF recognise water as a fundamental human right and end water privatisation. The alternative forum culminated in a protest that entered the WWF venue. Protesters held up banners with slogans including "Right to water not corporate control" and "$H2000000.00?"
A March 20 New York Times article quoted a participant as saying that a "big-time shift" had occurred at the WWF, where there was a general view that governments need to take more responsibility for providing access to safe water. Participants at the WWF also pointed out the abject failure of private companies to solve the deteriorating global water situation, where 1.1 billion people lack access to clean water, 2.6 billion do not have access to a toilet and up to 6000 people, mostly children, die from water-related causes each day.
However, prying water away from corporations is not going to happen easily. The WWF's declaration put its weight behind a World Bank-led campaign to continue building hydroelectric projects and dams, long-opposed by environmentalists as being environmentally destructive. These projects are often used as mechanisms for private corporations to gain control of water supplies. There was also concern about Third World countries becoming increasingly dependent on bottled water, an industry now worth US$100 billion a year.
Conant also quoted Angel Martinez from the Union of National Water Workers, who pointed out the dire water situation in Mexico itself, where water is highly polluted with heavy metals, causing high rates of cancer among children. Martinez also pointed out that privatisation is continuing in Mexico, whereby companies are granted decades-long concessions to water supplies.
A declaration initiated by Bolivia, Cuba, Venezuela and Uruguay was adopted by the alternative forum. It sought to enshrine water as a fundamental human right and ensure that water is excluded from free-trade agreements. The declaration was voted down at the WWF, and the four countries then refused to sign the final ministerial statement.
From Green Left Weekly, April 5, 2006.
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