March 16-22, 2006
The 4th World Water Forum
Having its main theme entitled, “Local actions for a global challenge,” the WW4F focused on five framework themes: water for growth and development; implementing integrated water resources management (IWRM); water supply and sanitation for all; water management for food and the environment; and risk management. Over 200 thematic sessions were scheduled, and more than 11,000 participants attended, representing governments, UN agencies, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academia, industry, indigenous groups, youth and the media.
Each thematic topic-session at the WW4F was two hours. Among the topic sessions that CIEL attended included:
- Water and Free Trade Agreements, organized by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), focused on the impacts of the NAFTA, CAFTA, and the Andean Free Trade Agreement on water management in Latin America. Panelists discussed the links and impacts between integrated water management and FTAs, Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs), and their associated international dispute systems.
- Access to Water for Local Finance, which involved a report for the World Water Forum produced by a panel chaired by Angel Gurria, the former finance minister of Mexico. The panel consisted of thirteen speakers in two hours, leaving no time for questions. The panelists discussed finance issues, including the need for more public-private partnerships, more soft loans for the private sector, and future strategies of the World Water Council and bodies like the World Bank.
- Human Right to Water, organized by the Comisión de Derechos Humanos del Distrito Federal, Casa y Ciudad and the Mexican Center for Environmental Rights (CEMDA). The session, chaired by Emilio Alvarez Icaza Longoria, Mexico City’s Human Rights Commission, explored the theme of the human right to water using rural and urban case studies from Mexico. Lorena Viniegra Velázquez, Ra’yo deje, “New Water”, discussed a program of extra-curricular educational and awareness-raising activities which help children in rural communities explore the right to life. Héctor Rosas, Casa y Ciudad, described an urban neighborhood project that seeks to facilitate the right to housing and water. Alejandra Serrano Pavón, Mexican Center for Environmental Rights, stressed the need to recognize the human right to water not only in laws but also in actions. Georgina Sandoval, Casa y Ciudad, noted that urban and rural experiences in trying to ensure the human right to water share commonalities.
- The Right to Water: What does it mean and how to implement it was chaired by Bertrand Charrier, Green Cross International. Charrier called for stronger political will to realize access to water for all, noting that challenges surrounding the right to water, sometimes conflicts with sustainable natural resources management. Among the many speakers were: Loïc Fauchon, WWC President, who presented the WWC report The right to water: what does it mean and how to implement it?; Henri Smets, French Water Academy, who highlighted the UN General Assembly Resolution in which States recognized the rights to food and clean water; and Paul Van Hofwegen, WWC, who highlighted findings from the WWC report, including that national governments are responsible for enabling the right to water through legislation and real multi-year action plans with budget allocation, and that protection of water resources must be included in implementation of the right to water.
The Final Declaration
The final ministerial declaration of the WW4F did not clearly affirm the human right to water. Rather than achieving “consensus” on the declaration, several Ministers – most notably Abel Mamani, Water Minister of Bolivia – demanded changes or additions to the document. By the closing ceremony of the WW4F no agreement had been reached, though a bland and noncommittal document was agreed upon soon after the closing session.
The final declaration commits governments to prioritize water and sanitation as aspects of sustainable development; to continue efforts to reach the millennium development goals of cutting in half the number of people without water and sanitation services by 2015; and to commit funds to reducing risks from water-related natural disasters, among other commitments that do little, if anything, to recognize a need for a different approach to the water issue.
Unhappy with the declaration, Bolivia, Cuba, Spain, Uruguay, and Venezuela have presented a parallel statement affirming the human right to water and demanding that water be removed from the GATS negotiations. This statement will appear as an annex to the official statement, signed by at least those five countries.
Alternative Events
Both Mexican and international non-governmental organizations organized events that occurred outside the Centro Banamex, the local of the WW4F. The contrast between the WW4F and the alternative forum – held in the Telephone Workers’ Union Hall and other peoples’ venues around the city- is the contrast between the developed and underdeveloped worlds.
March 16th Protest
The opening day of the WW4F was marked by a massive protest from the Statue of Independence to the Centre Banomex. More then 20,000 mostly peaceful demonstrators passed riot police and a 6.5 kilometer march route in the first ever international march in favor of the human right to water. Among the workers and families marching, hundreds of people with masks, sticks, and other black-block accoutrements and anarchists taunted the police and several small scuffles broke out leading to the arrest, and eventual release of 26 youths allegedly armed with Molotov cocktails. The press focused on the destruction of a police car, which represented the entire march on many of front pages the next morning.
International Defense of Water
The International Forum in the Defense of Water was part of several rallies in the Defense of Water, and took place from March 17-20, 2006 in the Sindicato de Telefonistas de la República Mexicana-the Telephone Workers’ Union Hall.
On the first day of the International Defense of Water, CIEL took part in a strategy meeting with activists from local struggles in various countries, including indigenous groups, border activists, and groups working on national policy campaigns, like Corporate Accountability International, Food and Water Watch, Womens’ International League for Peace and Freedom. This meeting laid plans to bring water rights to the national agenda at social forum next year and the Border Social Forum in El Paso/Juarez this May, as well as discussing health impact studies, a proposed Coca Cola boycott and other focused strategies to build the movement.
The outcome of this forum was a declaration entitled ‘Declaration of the Movements in Defense of Water’ that was adopted on March 19th, and was supported by local and international NGOs. The Declaration set out some basic principles in the global struggle for community-controlled water resource management. The emphasis, agreed on in the final declaration, is now on water management that is “public, social, community controlled and participatory.”
The overall experience of attending this alternative forum was encouraging and exciting, especially since water activists from around the world and the NGOs that work with them led the forum. There was much discussion on participatory management, a clear analysis of the problems and sharing of information between movements in many countries. The experiences of many activists in developing countries were quite emotional. However, it would have been beneficial to include discussion of practical, hands-on skills-building, as building both technical and social skills is required in advocating community-controlled water management.
Latin American Water Tribunal
The Public Hearing of the Latin American Water Tribunal occurred from March 13-20, 2006. CIEL attended the final conclusions, or reading of the verdicts on March 20th, which consisted of a seven-person panel summarizing the different cases and the calls to action for each case. For example, the outcome of one case involved implications for the United Kingdom (UK). Shipments of waste from British Nuclear Fuels plants in the UK are transported through the Panama Canal on their way to an overseas treatment plant. The Tribunal found that these transports put the communities and eco-systems of the region in great jeopardy and called on the Panamanian government to outlaw them.
CIEL Publications:
At the WW4F and the International Defense of Water forum, CIEL circulated the following publications: an issue brief entitled, The
Ebb and Flow of Water Privation; and the book, Freshwater and International Economic Law (Oxford University Press, 2005).
Publications of CIEL partners:
CIEL partner circulated the following publication: The free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples as a prerequisite for groundwater exploration in their ancestral lands: A human rights approach to the water of the Likanantai people (Atacama Desert, Chile).
For more information:
The 4th World Water Forum,
http://www.worldwaterforum.org/home/home.asp
The International Defense of Water
http://www.comda.org.mx/
The Latin American Water Tribunal
http://www.tragua.com/
Or contact Marcos Orellana.