Water Justice Turkey Declaration

After
Mexico City 2006, which was an important milestone of the continuous work of
the global movement for water justice, we have now gathered in Istanbul to mobilize
against the 5th World Water Forum. We are here to delegitimize this false, corporate
driven World Water Forum and to give voice to the positive agenda of the global
water justice movements! Given
that we are in Turkey, we cannot ignore that this country provides a powerful
example of the devastating impacts of destructive water management policies.

The Turkish government has pushed for the privatization of both water services,
watersheds and has plans to dam every river in the country. Four specific cases
of destructive and risky dams in Turkey, include the Ilisu, Yusufeli, Munzur
and Yortanli dams. For ten years, affected people have intensively opposed
these projects, in particular, the Ilisu dam which is part of a larger
irrigation and energy production project known as the South East Anatolia
Projects, or GAP.

The Ilisu dam - one of the most criticized dam projects
worldwide - is particularly compex and troubling because of its implications on
international policy in the Middle East. The dam is situated in the Kurdish-settled
region where there are ongoing human rights violations related to the unsolved
Kurdish question. The Turkish government is using GAP to negatively impact the
livelihood of the Kurdish people and to suppress their cultural and political
rights.

We, as a
movement, are here to offer solutions to the water crisis, and to demand that the
UN General Assembly organize the next global
forum on water. The participation of important United Nations officials and
representatives in our meeting is evidence that something has changed. There is
a tangible and symbolic shift of legitimacy:
from the official Forum organized by private interests and by the World Water
Council to the Peoples Water Forum, organized by global civil society including,
farmers, indigenous peoples, activists, social movements, trade unions,
non-governmental organizations and networks that struggle throughout the world
in the defense of water and territory and for the commons.

We call on
the United Nations and its member states to accept its obligation, as the
legitimate global convener of multilateral forums, and to formally commit to
hosting a forum on water that is linked to state obligations and is accountable
to the global community.

We call
upon all organizations and governments at this 5th World Water Forum, to commit
to making it the last corporate-controlled water forum. The world needs the
launch of a legitimate, accountable, transparent, democratic forum on water
emerging from within the UN processes supported by its member states.

Confirming
once again the illegitimacy of the World Water Forum, we denounce the Ministerial
Statement because it does not recognize water as a universal human right nor
exclude it from global trade agreements. In addition the draft resolution ignores
the failure of privatization to guarantee the access to water for all, and does
not take into account those positive recommendations proposed by the insufficient
European Parliamentary Resolution.

Finally, the statement promotes the use of
water to produce energy from hydroelectric dams and the increased production of
fuel from crops, both of which lead to further inequity and injustice.

We reaffirm
and strengthen all the principles and commitments expressed in the 2006 Mexico
City declaration: we uphold water as the basic element of all life on the
planet, as a fundamental and inalienable human right; we insist that solidarity
between present and future generations should be guaranteed; we reject all
forms of privatization and declare that the management and control of water
must be public, social, cooperative, participatory, equitable, and not for
profit; we call for the democratic and sustainable management of ecosystems and
to preserve the integrity of the water cycle through the protection and proper management
of watersheds and environment.

We oppose
the dominant economic and financial model that prescribes the privatization, commercialization
and corporatization of public water and sanitation services.

We will counter
this type of destructive and non-participatory public sector reform, having
seen the outcomes for poor people as a result of rigid cost-recovery practices
and the use of pre-paid meters.

Since 2006,
in Mexico, the global water justice movement has continued to challenge
corporate control of water for profit. Some of our achievements include: reclaiming
public utilities that had been privatized; fostering and implementing public-public partnerships; forcing the bottled water industry into a loss of revenue;
and coming together in collective simultaneous activities during Blue October
and the Global Action Week. We celebrate our achievements highlighted by the
recognition of the human right to water in several constitutions and laws.

At the
same time we need to address the economic and ecological crises. We will not
pay for your crisis! We will not rescue this flawed and unsustainable model,
which has transformed: unaccountable private spending into enormous public
debt, which has transformed water and the commons into merchandise, which has
transformed the whole of Nature into a preserve of raw materials and into an
open-air dump.

The basic
interdependence between water and climate change is recognized by the
scientific community and is underlined also by the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change. Therefore, we must not accept responses to climate chaos in the
energy sector that follow the same logic that caused the crisis in the first
place. This is a logic that jeopardizes the quantity and quality of water and
of life that is based on dams, nuclear power plants, and agro-fuel plantations.

In December 2009, we will bring our concerns and proposals to the United
Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.
Further,
the dominant model of intensive industrial agriculture, contaminates and
destroys water resources, impoverishes agricultural soils, and devastates food
sovereignty. This has enormous impact on lives and public health.

From the
fruitful experience of the Belem World Social Forum, we are committed to
strengthening the strategic alliance between water movements and those for land,
food and climate.

We also
commit to continue building networks and new social alliances, and to involve
both local authorities and Parliamentarians who are determined to defend water
as a common good and to reaffirm the right to fresh water for all human beings
and nature. We are also encouraging all public water utilities to get together,
establishing national associations and regional networks.

We
celebrate our achievements and we look forward for our continued collaboration
across countries and continents!