Inter-American Network for the Defense of the Right to Water

At the Third Hemispheric Assembly of the Inter-American Network for the Defense of the Right to Water (Red VIDA) that took place at the headquarters of the Instituto Mayor Campesino in the municipality of Guadalajara de Buga, Colombia, from the 17th to 19th of May 2009, the Network ratified its principles and approved its plan of action for the coming two years. The Red VIDA also convened the International Forum: Water, City, and Territory in the Americas, to discuss themes of regional and local interest with diverse Colombian organizations working for the defense of the right to water.

Through a wide array of struggles in the Americas for the defense of public water management, in resistance to the privatization of this common good and the social fragmentation and appropriation by the corporate model of development, and consequently, for the defense of territory, our organizations and social movements are advancing alternative models of social and public water management, with participation and social control, within the framework of defense of the common good and the fundamental human right to water.

In the year 2003, in San Salvador, El Salvador, the RedVIDA was born through the integration of local, national, and international struggles for the defense of water and life in countries of our American continent. Among these struggles were the Water War in Cochabamba, Bolivia (April, 2000); the popular referendum for the defense of water in Uruguay (October, 2004); the permanent assembly in Argentina that came out of the Provincial Assembly of Santa Fe (September, 2002); the struggle in Brazil for the repeal of Law 4047, and the recovery of many public companies, along with other struggles. All of these struggles mark an era without precedent in the Americas for the defense of water and encourage the multiplication of similar initiatives on other continents.

Currently, the Red VIDA supports the struggles of Colombians for the defense of water as a common good and fundamental human right, as well as the construction of the Water Movement and the defense of public utilities and forms of community management. The National Committee for the Defense of Water and Life in Colombia is right now promoting a constitutional referendum in the defense of water, with the backing of more than 2 million people, establishing an historic milestone in the world struggle for the defense of water.

The Red VIDA is itself a common good made up of our processes, networks, and organizations committed to an integrated vision of life. Trade unions, non- governmental organizations, networks that fight for the defense of the right to water, territory, and the commons, during these three days have evaluated our joint work and shared and have debated ideas, struggles, concerns, and proposals. We are active and proactive participants in the worldwide movement for the defense of the right to water.

The Red VIDA denounces the fraud perpetrated by the House of Representatives of the Colombian Congress, by altering the original text of the constitutional reform supported by the people. We demand that the popular will be respected by restoring the original text.

Similarly, we express our solidarity with our fellow workers in the Trade Union of Public Sanitation Services of Cali, SINTRAEMSIRVA, because of the decision of the government to liquidate the business and dismiss 420 workers without social security or provisions and the failure of the Mayor’s office to fulfill its commitment to establish a new sanitation company with the dismissed workers.

Likewise, we express our solidarity with our colleagues of the Trade Union of Municipal Workers of Cali, SINTRAEMCALI, for the prolonged intervention of the government toward the end of privatization and the persecution to which they have been submitted, including the dismissal of workers and the withdrawal of union licenses. Similarly, we express solidarity with our companions in the Trade Union of the Society of Aqueducts and Sewers of the Valley, S.A., SINTRACUAVALLE for the risk generated by the creation of the new public service agency ACUAVALLE-SAEP for the management and implementation of the Departmental Plan for Water by the governor of Valle de Cauca, given the existence of a public business like ACUAVALLE.

Today the network commits to deepening the struggle for the defense of the right to water within the framework of the defense of the commons and against any and all forms of the privatization of life.

We are committed to supporting the constitutional reforms, the promotion of legal frameworks and institutions that defend water as a common good and a public trust, and to the fundamental human right to water. From this perspective we aim to promote this public policies in all of our territories.

We are committed to mobilizing the Platform of Public-Community Alliances, demanding adequate public investment and the financing necessary for integrated water management according to principals of transparency, solidarity, territorial equality, and environmental conservation, undertaken by public organizations and communities not driven by profit.

Likewise, we are committed to continue opposing all forms of privatization and commercialization of water, both covert and overt, such as the inclusion of water in any Free Trade Agreement, and to strengthening our efforts to impact the multilateral financial institutions.

Signing Member Organizations of the Red VIDA

Sindicato Obras Sanitarias de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, SOBSA, Argentina

Unión de usuarios y consumidores de Argentina, Argentina

Coordinadora del Agua y la Vida, Bolivia

Fundación Abril, Bolivia

Rede Brasileira de Integraçao dos Povos REBRIP, Brasil

FASE, Brasil

Blue Planet Project, Canadá

Council of Canadians, Canadá

Chile Sustentable, Chile

Centro de Derecho Ambiental y de Recursos Naturales, CEDARENA, Costa Rica

Internacional de Servicios Públicos, ISP, Ecuador

Observatorio Ciudadano de Servicios Públicos, Ecuador

Food and Water Watch, FWW, EE.UU

Centro para la defensa del Consumidor, CDC, El Salvador

Bloque Popular, Honduras

Coalición de Organizaciones Mexicanas por el Derecho al Agua, COMDA, México

Instituto Mexicano para el desarrollo Comunitario. A.C, IMDEC, México

Frente de Defensa, Huancayo, Perú

Federación Nacional de Trabajadores del Agua Potable y Alcantarillado del Perú FENTAP, Perú

Federación de Funcionarios de Obras Sanitarias del Estado, FFOSE, Uruguay

Comisión Nacional en Defensa del Agua y de la Vida CNDAV, Uruguay

Corporación Ecofondo, Colombia

Corporación Ecológica y Cultural Penca de Sábila, Colombia

Corporación La CEIBA, Colombia

CENSAT, agua viva, Amigos de la Tierra, Colombia

SINTRAACUAVALLE, Colombia

Asociación de Acueductos Comunitarios Agua Viva, Colombia

Acueducto Comunitario “la Palma” de Girardota, Colombia

Fundación Estrella Orográfica del Macizo Colombiano, FUNDECIMA, Colombia

Fundación Educativa Soleira, FUNDESOL, Colombia

Corporate Accountability International, Colombia

Signing Organizations present at the International Forum: Water, City, and Territory in the Americas sponsored under the auspices of the Third Hemispheric Assembly of the Red VIDA

Trasnational Institute, TNI, Holanda

Municipal Services Project, Canadá

Federación de Trabajadores Fabriles de Cochabamba, Bolivia

ENDA América Latina, COLOMBIA

Corporación Ambientalista Esperanza Verde (Buga) Colombia

Movimiento por la Vida, Colombia

EMCALI - CALI. Colombia

Federación UNETE, COLOMBIA

Colectivo Cultural Andino Cali, Colombia

Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores del Sistema Nacional Ambiental , SINTRAMBIENTE, Colombia

Asociación Campesina de INZA-TIERRADENTRO, Colombia

Red Juvenil Territorio Sur, Colombia

Sindicato de trabajadores de la empresa de Servicios Públicos de Aseo de Cali SINTRAEMSIRVA, Colombia

Comité en Defensa del Agua y la Vida, Palmira, Colombia

Asociación Campesina de INZA-TIERRADENTRO ACIT, Colombia

Wilson Arias Castillo, Consejal Santiago de Cali, Colombia

Federación de acueductos rurales del Valle del Cauca, Colombia

Concejo regional indígena del Cauca, CRIC, Colombia.

After Mexico City 2006, which was an important milestone of the continuous work of the global movement for water justice, we have now gathered in Istanbul to mobilize against the 5th World Water Forum. We are here to delegitimize this false, corporate driven World Water Forum and to give voice to the positive agenda of the global water justice movements!

Given that we are in Turkey, we cannot ignore that this country provides a powerful example of the devastating impacts of destructive water management policies. The Turkish government has pushed for the privatization of both water services, watersheds and has plans to dam every river in the country. Four specific cases of destructive and risky dams in Turkey, include the Ilisu, Yusufeli, Munzur and Yortanli dams. For ten years, affected people have intensively opposed these projects, in particular, the Ilisu dam which is part of a larger irrigation and energy production project known as the South East Anatolia Projects, or GAP. The Ilisu dam – one of the most criticized dam projects worldwide – is particularly compex and troubling because of its implications on international policy in the Middle East. The dam is situated in the Kurdish-settled region where there are ongoing human rights violations related to the unsolved Kurdish question. The Turkish government is using GAP to negatively impact the livelihood of the Kurdish people and to suppress their cultural and political rights.

We, as a movement, are here to offer solutions to the water crisis, and to demand that the UN General Assembly organize the next global forum on water. The participation of important United Nations officials and representatives in our meeting is evidence that something has changed. There is a tangible and symbolic shift of legitimacy: from the official Forum organized by private interests and by the World Water Council to the Peoples Water Forum, organized by global civil society including, farmers, indigenous peoples, activists, social movements, trade unions, non-governmental organizations and networks that struggle throughout the world in the defense of water and territory and for the commons.

We call on the United Nations and its member states to accept its obligation, as the legitimate global convener of multilateral forums, and to formally commit to hosting a forum on water that is linked to state obligations and is accountable to the global community.

We call upon all organizations and governments at this 5th World Water Forum, to commit to making it the last corporate-controlled water forum. The world needs the launch of a legitimate, accountable, transparent, democratic forum on water emerging from within the UN processes supported by its member states.

Confirming once again the illegitimacy of the World Water Forum, we denounce the Ministerial Statement because it does not recognize water as a universal human right nor exclude it from global trade agreements. In addition the draft resolution ignores the failure of privatization to guarantee the access to water for all, and does not take into account those positive recommendations proposed by the insufficient European Parliamentary Resolution. Finally, the statement promotes the use of water to produce energy from hydroelectric dams and the increased production of fuel from crops, both of which lead to further inequity and injustice.

We reaffirm and strengthen all the principles and commitments expressed in the 2006 Mexico City declaration: we uphold water as the basic element of all life on the planet, as a fundamental and inalienable human right; we insist that solidarity between present and future generations should be guaranteed; we reject all forms of privatization and declare that the management and control of water must be public, social, cooperative, participatory, equitable, and not for profit; we call for the democratic and sustainable management of ecosystems and to preserve the integrity of the water cycle through the protection and proper management of watersheds and environment.

We oppose the dominant economic and financial model that prescribes the privatization, commercialization and corporatization of public water and sanitation services. We will counter this type of destructive and non-participatory public sector reform, having seen the outcomes for poor people as a result of rigid cost-recovery practices and the use of pre-paid meters. Since 2006, in Mexico, the global water justice movement has continued to challenge corporate control of water for profit. Some of our achievements include: reclaiming public utilities that had been privatized; fostering and implementing public – public partnerships; forcing the bottled water industry into a loss of revenue; and coming together in collective simultaneous activities during Blue October and the Global Action Week. We celebrate our achievements highlighted by the recognition of the human right to water in several constitutions and laws.

At the same time, we need to address the economic and ecological crises. We will not pay for your crisis! We will not rescue this flawed and unsustainable model, which has transformed: unaccountable private spending into enormous public debt, which has transformed water and the commons into merchandise, which has transformed the whole of Nature into a preserve of raw materials and into an open-air dump.

The basic interdependence between water and climate change is recognized by the scientific community and is underlined also by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Therefore, we must not accept responses to climate chaos in the energy sector that follow the same logic that caused the crisis in the first place. This is a logic that jeopardizes the quantity and quality of water and of life that is based on dams, nuclear power plants, and agro-fuel plantations. In December 2009, we will bring our concerns and proposals to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Further, the dominant model of intensive industrial agriculture, contaminates and destroys water resources, impoverishes agricultural soils, and devastates food sovereignty. This has enormous impact on lives and public health. From the fruitful experience of the Belem World Social Forum, we are committed to strengthening the strategic alliance between water movements and those for land, food and climate. We also commit to continue building networks and new social alliances, and to involve both local authorities and Parliamentarians who are determined to defend water as a common good and to reaffirm the right to fresh water for all human beings and nature. We are also encouraging all public water utilities to get together, establishing national associations and regional networks.

We celebrate our achievements and we look forward for our continued collaboration across countries and continents!

Adolescentes Queretanos Unidos por el Agua (México)

Africa Water Network

Alliance for Democracy - US

Alpine Riverkeepers Australia

Amigos de la Tierra Argentina

Another Water Management is Possible Campaign

Aquattac, European Network of Attac water activists

Association pour le Contrat Mondial de l'Eau, France

Association pour le Contrat Mondial de l'Eau-Maroc, Instance Nationale de Défense des Biens Publics, Right to Water Forum in the Arab Region

Attac, Finland

Attac, Germany

BanglaPraxis, Bangladesh

Berlin Water Table, Germany

Blue Planet Project, Canada

Botnaru Petru

Canadian Union of Public Employees/ Syndicat Canadien de la Fonction Publique

Campagna per la Riforma della banca Mondiale

Centre for Civil Society Environmental Justice Project, Durban, South Africa

Centre for Environmental Justice, Sri Lanka

Centre for Law, Policy and Human Rights Studies, Chennai, India

Centre of Strategic planning for development -KE.S.S.A "Dimitra"

CeVI, Italy

Coalición de Organizaciones Mexicanas por el Derecho al Agua, COMDA, Mexico

Comité de Enlace de la Red VIDA, the Americas

Coordinadora de Defensa del Agua y de la Vida, Bolivia

Corporate Accountability International, USA

Corporate Europe Observatory

Council of Canadians

Council of Canadians, London, Canada

Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft - Vereinigte KriegsdienstgegnerInnen Wiesbaden

Ecologistas en Acción (Spain)

EcoMujer

Egyptian Cmte. for Right to Water and Right to Water Forum in the Arab Region

Enginyeria Sense Frontere- Catalunya

Federación de Funcionarios de OSE, Uruguay

Federación de Trabajadores Fabriles de Cochabamba, Bolivia

Focus on the Global South

Food & Water Watch, USA

Frances Libertes, France

Freedom from Debt Coalition, Philippines

Friends of the Earth, Canada

Friends of the Earth, Finland

Friends of the Earth, International (FoEI)

Gerhard Jüttner

Globalization Monitor, Hong Kong

Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF)

Ingeniería Sin Fronteras - Aragón

Italian Committee World Water Contract

Jubilee South - Asia/Pacific Movement on Debt and Development (JS APMDD)

National Commission in Defense of Water and Life, Uruguay

Nitya Jacob, Water Community, India

Patrick J. O'Connor, Centre for Social Concern

Philipp Terhorst, Transnational Institute

Philippine Peace and Solidarity Council

Playapart, Italy

Polaris Institute, Canada

Solidarity Workshop, International

SuKo, Germany

Swarna Hansa Foundation, Sri Lanka

Theresa Ede

Transnational Institute, Europe

Umeedenao Citizen Community Board, Pakistan

United Church of Christ, Environmental Justice Program

Vanessa Richard, CNRS, France

Wasser in Bürgerhand WIB

Water Movement, Norway

Water Movements Italian Forum

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom - US Section

Zambia Consumer Association