European Social Forum meets at time of austerity politics to strategise on how to build an effective pan-European response by Europe's social movements.
The European Commission is deliberately promoting privatisation of water services as one of the conditions of bailouts, it acknowledged in a letter to civil society groups.
Over the last ten years, a successful public-public partnership has taken shape between the water users associations in a rural region of Senegal, the French city of Cherbourg-Octeville as well as several other partners including civil society groups in Senegal and Europe.
The Bonadikombo water supply project exemplifies participatory planning in action. It shows how the various aspects of participation elaborated in participatory planning theory play out in practice by using elements of enlistment, cooperation and consultation.
Mary Ann B. Manahan, Focus on the Global South; Gabriella Zanzanaini, FoodFirst Information and Action Network, Water Watch; Claudia Campero, Water Watch/RED VIDA
28 March 2012
Article
The international water movement has been working for several years with important success in bringing solidarity to local struggles and impacting international policy. Broad consensus in significant issues has allowed good communication, support and collaborative efforts around the globe. However, the changing and challenging context compels us to go further in our coordination efforts and collaboration work.
This discussion paper aims to generate much-needed discussions about the experiences with Water Operators Partnerships (WOPs) projects on the ground, in this case in Latin America. The paper highlights a number of serious problems with the WOP-LAC projects, many of which are run by commercially oriented or private water operators.
Critics of the triennial World Water Forum are encouraged by the failure on the part of forum organizers to attract large numbers to this year's event taking place March 12-17 in Marseille.
A book for practitioners, unionists, social movements and analysts who are seeking reliable knowledge on what kinds of public models work and their main strengths and weaknesses.
TNI and other civil society organisations, in an open letter, have denounced the European Comission's admission that it imposes water privatization conditionalities as part of its 'rescue' package to crisis countries.
The fluid nature of water and its hydrologic complexity often obscure how water grabbing takes place and what the associated impacts on the environment and diverse social groups are.
For the last decade, the water justice movements from around the world have been struggling against the privatization and commercialization of water. But the big challenge for the movements is always to be one step ahead of the privateers.
United under the slogan 'Water is life, Not for Profit' 2000 people ended The Alternative World Water Forum (FAME) in Marseilles on 17th March with a protest march. TNI together with Reclaiming Public Water Network partners actively engaged in FAME and contributed to the collective achievement.
