On August 17th, at an historic meeting, civil society groups from North and South met with the Bolivian and Norwegian governments at the Bolivian Ministry of Water in order to advance the international struggle for the right to water forward and commit them to further collaboration.

 

Water activists Oscar Olivera from Bolivia and Maude Barlow from Canada met with the Bolivian Water Minister Abel Mamani and Norwegian Minister for Development Cooperation Erik Solheim in La Paz to discuss opportunities for further joint efforts.

 

"We are very happy to be working with the Bolivian government, Norwegian government, and the global water justice movement in order to secure our human to water," said Olivera, spokesperson of the Coalition for the Defense of Water in Bolivia. "The victory against the privatization of water in Bolivia was a victory of the people. This is about community control of water. It is an international struggle, and with these new allies, our united voices will be impossible to ignore."

 

Around the world, 1.2 billion people do not have access to clean drinking water. Every year over 2 million people, mostly children, die from preventable diarrhea contracted from drinking unsafe water. The crisis is growing, and without an immediate and concerted international effort, it will continue to grow as increased privatization and commodification violates people's right to water.

 

The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in its "General Comment No. 15," made it clear that water should be treated as a social and cultural good, not a tradable commodity. Now the Bolivian and Norwegian governments had this historic meeting to discuss with other partners how to make progress toward our common goal, and against the resistance of large water corporations and some governments.

 

The new international push for the right to water is the culmination of a series of civil society victories against the privatization of water that grabbed public attention in Cochabamba, Bolivia. As a condition for a World Bank loan, the public water system was privatized in 1999. After massive tariff hikes, the water was taken back through powerful but peaceful demonstrations. Six years later, the issue has gained global attention as similar struggles proliferate around the world to push back against a rash of water privatizations.

 

"This is an historic moment for North-South cooperation on the issue of water rights," said Andrew Preston, director of the International Association for Water Studies (FIVAS) Norway and co-author of the report Privatization of Water: Do Public-Private Partnerships Deliver to the Poor? "First we bridged civil society groups from around the world. Now we are connecting them with governments who can take our struggle to the United Nations and push other countries to recognize water as a right. It belongs to the people, not corporations."

 

An action plan for development cooperation, issued by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in June this year, declared it "will work to ensure the right to water for all and to promote the understanding of water as a common good." The government's political platform, known as the Soria Moria Declaration, also states clearly that no support will be provided for aid or debt relief that is conditional on privatization.  

 

"The right to water is an idea whose time has come," said Barlow, national chairperson of the Council of Canadians and co-founder of The Blue Planet project. "We need to work with supportive governments like Bolivia and Norway. I am ashamed of the immoral rejection of the right to water by my own government in Canada, and pledge to continue to fight for water justice around the world. Together we must make the right to water real, legally binding, and enforceable. The world's water is in peril. We can't wait any longer to make this happen."

 

For more information, please contact: Meera Karunananthan, media officer, Council of Canadians 613.233.4487 ext 234; 613.795.8685 (cell); meera@canadians.org

 

In Bolivia, please contact Boris Rios at (591) 735 27222.