Blog Posts: Fifth World Water Forum Marked by Violence and Repression

by Jeff Conant

As the World Water Forum opened on March 16th in Istanbul Turkey, 300
Turkish activists gathered near the forum's entrance were faced with an
overwhelming force of 2000-3000 police. The peaceful protest quickly
escalated as police charged the crowd, firing water cannons, tear gas,
and rubber bullets and lunging into the crowd with fists and truncheons.

The World Water Forum is a triennial gathering which, according to it's website, is "an open, all-inclusive, multi-stakeholder process" where governments, NGOs, businesses and others "create links, debate and attempts to find solutions to achieve water security." The World Water Council, the forum's main organizer, is dominated by two of the world's largest private water corporations, Suez and Veolia. Loc Fauchon, president of the Council, is also thepresident of Groupe des Eaux de Marseille,  a company owned jointly by Veolia and a subsidiary of Suez. The alternate president, Charles-Louis de Maud'huy, has been working at Compagnie Gnrale des Eaux, a subsidiary of Veolia, since 1978. Critics contend that the Council's links to Suez and Veolia, as well as the large representation of the business industry in the Council, compromise its legitimacy.