On Wednesday 28 July, the UN will vote on an historic resolution affirming the human right to water. But a powerful group of countries are trying to undermine the resolution.
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.
While both North–South partnerships and SouthSouth Partnerships have strengths and limitations, linking these in networked models is an effective way to mobilise expertise and funding and achieve success.
The Obama administration has made a few steps in the right direction. But U.S.-Latin American relations are far from mended, and skepticism is growing.
Although initiated as a counter-forum to Davos, the World Social Forum has evolved beyond it now, focusing on the root causes of problems facing humanity and developing real alternatives as solutions.
A letter was sent today to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon by water justice organizations from around the world expressing deep concerns about a new “high-level” panel convened by the World Bank at the United Nations focusing on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goal on water and sanitation.
It had been billed as a summit to push for universal access to water, but attending the Budapest Water Summit held last week felt like grasping at a mirage of water in a desert. The slogans and appearance were attractive, but held no prospect of delivering the human right to water for all.
At UN meetings in Addis Ababa, private finance has been touted as key to achieving the new Sustainable Development Goals, but campaigners argue that public finance is more reliable and more likely to secure the human right to water for all.
While water privatisation continues to be imposed throughout the world, particularly in the Global South, more and more communities are demanding public management of water and wastewater services and forcing out private actors. On World Water Day we bring you 10 inspiring stories of communities and cities working to reclaim control over this essential resource.
While TTIP is currently attracting the most attention, more trade agreements are looming. In July, world leaders holed themselves up in back rooms to discuss TiSA, an extensive service agreement intended to put (public) services, like the water supply, in the hands of the international market.
UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation is preparing a report on development cooperation and the human rights to water and sanitation. The focus of the report will be on the human rights obligations of bilateral and multilateral donors in extending grants and loans, providing technical and programming support and policy advice to developing countries. The report will examine existing policies and their guidance on human rights to explore to what extent existing policies and approaches reflect human rights and how these are implemented in practice. The Special Rapporteur, Leo Heller encouraged civil society organisations to answer the guided questions. The undersigned water justice organisations submitted the following contribution to the Special Rapporteur.
The EU is the largest water donor in the world, providing € 1.4 billion of development aid per year. This Corporate Europe Observatory report looks at how the EU uses this funding to promote private sector water management.
This primer unveils a new wave of ocean grabbing, answering the most important questions about the mechanisms that facilitate it and the impacts on people and the environment.
India's story starkly illustrates the disconnect between GDP and social progress, and the need for radically new economics developed from the bottom up.
Since the mid-1990s (1) , Morocco's economic and political decision-makers have pushed for the liberalisation, privatisation and the lowering of the trade barriers agenda that has been prevalent in the country since 1983. (2)
From the 23rd to the 27th of September 2008, water justice activists, public water managers/operators, trade unions and academe from Asian countries met in Chennai, India.
