Globalization and a neoliberal policy climate allowed some actors to concentrate water and decision-making power at the expense of less powerful ones, threatening their water and food security while also causing environmental degradation. Resulting water conflicts happen over access to resources, contents of rights and rules, the legitimate authority to make those rules, and the discourses used to articulate realities. The Justicia Hídrica/Water Justice alliance sets out to support water policies that contribute to an equitable distribution of water and democratic allocation procedures. Through a broad alliance of researchers, policy-makers, professionals and grass-root organizations, chiefly in Latin America, but also in countries in Africa, Asia, North America and Europe, the project combines: interdisciplinary research on the dynamics and mechanisms of water accumulation and conflicts; training for and conscientization of a critical mass of water professionals, grassroots leaders and policy-makers; and support for civil society strategies that engage with the questions, needs and opportunities of those groups with less rights and voice in terms of water control.

Land grabbing and the control over water.
Henk Hobbelink and GRAIN, UK.

The past few years have witnessed a massive wave of landgrabbing in which foreign corporations take over land in poor countries to grow food or biofuels for export. They are also true watergrabs, as these deals require enormous amounts of water for irrigation. In many cases local communities see the access to their traditional water sources blocked and their water supply polluted with agrochemicals. Besides direct land and water grabs there are numerous indirect ways in which local communities are denied access to land and water. The UN now actively promotes private sector involvement on a global scale in the name of Public Private Partnerships and Corporate Social Responsibility under the Global Compact. Increasingly it is adopting the model of Multi-Donor Trust Funds involving private foundations, corporations in financing development projects in the name of poverty alleviation and environmental protection. The new developments call for new strategies against land and water grabbing.

Farmers’ fight for control over local water resources in an international perspective.
Asli Ocan, ÇIFTÇI-SEN, Turkey.

Farmers’ Union Çiftçi-sen from Turkey, a member of la Vía Campesina faces a big issue in Turkey both on rivers crossing national borders and local struggles against hydro-electic plants in many villages. Çiftçi-sen will give a presentation on water problems (pollution, privatization), their transnational impacts and local struggles based on the Turkish case. We would like to share farmers’ experience in Turkey with other stakeholders in local and international struggles over control over water and water sources from other parts of the globe.

Water Stewardship.
Jeroen Vos, Wageningen University Netherlands.

Increased global trade of agricultural commodities has augmented the use of fresh water. In arid regions this export of ‘virtual’ water, embedded in products sold abroad, has increasingly affected local communities and ecosystems around the globe. Recently, initiatives for certification of agricultural production are showing a rapidly growing interest in considering ‘water issues’ in schemes of product certification. Agribusiness use product certification as part of their “Corporative Social Responsibility” (CSR) strategy. However, in practice producer certification schemes discriminate against smallholders and bear the danger of “greenwashing”. Can local water user communities, labour unions and environmental movements use water stewardship claims to defend local water rights?

European Water policy, corporate interests and the right to water.
Jerry van den Berge, European Federation of Public Services Unions.

Water and water resources are becoming more and more terrain of conflicting interest since water is being considered as a ‘scarce’ good. European neoliberal policies promote market structures and dynamics as the most efficient way too allocate water resources. This policy continues even when knowing that market dynamics and corporate interests seek to make profits in the short term and neglect long term effects, and without analysing at what and at who’s expense these profits are made. The European public service trade unions have promoted and keep promoting quality public services as core to achieve fair and equitable distribution of water services and to maintain public control over water resources to safeguard them for future generations. EPSU will reveal its plan for a European Citizens’ Initiative to empower people in defence of their human right to water.

Summary of the workshop “Internationalisation of water battles; empowering local stakeholders”

To: Olli Rehn, Vice-President of the European Commission and member of the Commission responsible for Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Euro.

CC: José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission. Michel Barnier, member of the Commission responsible for for Internal Market and Services. Janez Potočnik, member of the Commission responsible for the Environment. László Andor, member of the Commission responsible for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion.

Dear Mr. Rehn,

As a member of the ‘Troika’, the European Commission (with the International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank) has been responsible for setting the loan conditions for Greece, Portugal and other countries receiving rescue loans in the context of the sovereign debt crisis. These conditions, which have been widely criticised for the emphasis on cutting public budgets, include in the cases of Greece and Portugal large-scale privatisation of public services, including water utilities. We believe that this privatisation conditionality is unacceptable and seriously undermines the right to water.

The fact that the Commission (as part of the Troika) has insisted on the privatisation of water utilities also appears to be in violation of the EU’s supposed neutrality on the question of public or private ownership and management of collective water services (article 345 TFEU and Art. 17 1 of the Directive 2006/123/EC on services in the internal market).1

In the case of Portugal, the Troika’s conditions include the privatisation of the state-owned water company, Aguas do Portugal. For Greece, the Troika package includes a long list of companies that the country has to sell off, including the water companies for Athens and Thessaloniki.

The argument is that these privatisation measures will create income that can be used to repay government debt while the private sector continues to deliver the service. This is indefensible in a crisis situation as the companies will be bought at their market value and not their assets value. In Thessaloniki, the company is a net contributor to the city’s budget, while the redemption price of the 40% capital and management rights being forcibly sold will amount to only three years of profit. As the new report “Our Right to Water – case studies on austerity and privatisation in Europe” shows, the real-world experience with privatisation of water is very different: “Services get worse, jobs are lost, and private monopolies enjoy inflated profits for decades, while the amount of money paid by the private buyers is invariably far below expectations. It is not good economics.”2

In a context where harsh austerity measures have led to income loss, job losses and widespread poverty, privatisation (typically leading to higher prices and undermining access to services) directly threatens the right to water.3 The report also demonstrates that these privatisation measures have been imposed from above despite widespread public opposition, in violation of the right to public participation in decision-making about water and sanitation services.

The privatisation programmes are being imposed at a time when the appetite for water privatisation among municipalities is at a long-time low because of the disappointing experiences throughout Europe and around the world. An increasing number of cities are choosing remunicipalisation, having tried privatisation, including Paris, which has experienced lower prices and improved services as a result.4

Imposing top-down water privatisation in the context of a deep economic crisis is not only flawed socially and economically but reveals undemocratic policy-making concerning the most vital public service of all. By imposing privatisation of water utilities (as part of the Troika) on Member States, the European Commission appears to be violating EU legislation and the subsidiarity principle, an approach, which the European Court of Justice would likely condemn.

It is in this context that we ask you to guarantee that the European Commission withdraws such demands and refrains from any further pressure to impose water privatisation conditionalities on Greece, Portugal and any other country that might enter negotiations with the Troika in the future. Similarly, outside the Troika, the European Commission has been putting pressure on Italy and perhaps other countries (in the context of the structural reform programmes) to privatise local public utilities, including those providing drinking water and sanitation. For the reasons noted above, this pressure is flawed, undemocratic, at odds with the EU treaties and should be terminated immediately.

We look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely,

Água é de todos (Portugal)
Aquattac
ATTAC Hungary
ATTAC Spain
Berliner Wassertisch (Germany)
Blue Planet Project
Coordination Eau Ile de France
Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)
Council of Canadians
Coordination Rhône-Méditerranée des Associations des Usagers de l’Eau (CRAUE)
Ecologistas en Accion (Spain)
European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU)
Food and Water Europe
France Libertés
Gemeingut in BürgerInnenhand (Germany)
Ingenieres Sin Fronteras (Spain)
Italian Forum of Water Movements
Movement 136 (Greece)
Transnational Institute (TNI)
Wasser in Bürgerhand (Germany)
Za Zemiata (Bulgaria)

Endnotes

1. Article 345 of the EU Treaties (ex Article 295 EC) requires the Commission to be neutral on public or private ownership of companies: “The Treaties shall in no way prejudice the rules in Member States governing the system of property ownership.” Article 345 TFEU (ex Article 295 EC).
2. Our Right to Water – Case studies in Austerity and privatization in Europe, ed. by D. Hall and M. Karunananthan, Blue Planet Project, EPSU, PSIRU, Food and Water Europe.
3. As recognised by the 2001 European Charter on Water Resources and the July 2010 United Nations General Assembly Resolution on the right to water and sanitation.
4. Remunicipalisation – Putting water back into public hands, ed. by M. Pigeon, D. McDonald, S. Kishimoto and O. Hoedeman, Municipal Services Project, Transnational Institute and Corporate Europe Observatory, March 2012.

Letter to the European Commission on water privatization conditionalities

This letter was sent with the above list of signatories but further organizations can sign it online :

cforms contact form by delicious:days

In June this year, governments gather in Brazil for the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development to agree on measures to address the multiple crises the world is facing on issues such as energy, food, climate and finance.

However, what we see coming out of the preparatory negotiations, is not at all pointing in the right direction. The Zero Draft of the Rio+20 Declaration highlights the role of business as promoter of the so-called ‘green economy’ and advocates market-based mechanisms that primarily benefit business, while failing to hold business accountable for its role in creating the financial, climate, food and other crises.

The expected outcome of the negotiations raises strong concerns about the growing influence of major corporations and business lobby groups within the UN: their influence on the positions of national governments in multilateral negotiations; their dominance in certain UN discussion spaces, and in certain UN bodies. Increasingly we see UN policies that do not serve the public interest but rather support the commercial interests of companies or business sectors. The UN is captured by the corporate sector.

Read more on the website of Friends of the Earth International

On Sunday 1st April, at the first opportunity, the European Citizen’s Initiative (ECI) on water as a human right was submitted to the European Commission.

It is now up to the European Commission to validate the proposal. Once this is done the official registration of signatures can start and from that date there is one year to collect the million signatures to get “implementation of the human right to water and sanitation” on the European political agenda.

Jan Willem Goudriaan, EPSU’s Deputy General Secretary and member of the Citizens’ Committee stated at the press conference for this ECI: “Water is a Human Right. Public services such as water and sanitation should not be liberalised and dominated by commercial and corporate interests”.

As one of the first ECIs submitted, there was a lot of media attention in newspapers, radio and TV, for example in Belgium by VRT and in Germany by ZDF. All media coverage can be seen at www.right2water.eu . The campaign was presented in March, both at the World Water Forum and the Alternative World Water Forum in Marseille. It was particularly well received because the human right to water and sanitation is at the core of discussions in the framework of the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development and in European water policy. Support for this ECI keeps growing. We can now count on the backing of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and on the European Environmental Bureau (EEB).

As EEB Secretary General  Jeremy Wates states: “Water is indispensable to life. It runs through our cities, our bodies, our valleys, sustaining us and our environment. Water is therefore not a commodity like any other; it is a fundamental human right. The European Environmental Bureau is pleased to support this campaign to ensure that water is seen as a public good and that protecting our water environment prevails over commercial interests. “

This campaign is a means of getting a commitment  to the human right to water and sanitation. It is a tool to change the mind-set in the European Commission from a market-based approach with the focus on competition to a rights-based approach with the focus on public service. It aims to achieve universal (global) access to water and sanitation and to safeguard the limited public water resources for future generations.

cforms contact form by delicious:days

List of organizations who have signed the declaration

List of individuals who have signed the declaration

As members of the global water justice movement gathered together in Marseille in March 2012 at FAME (Alternative World Water Forum), we have a shared vision of water: water is a commons, not a commodity.

Thanks to the water justice movement, the United Nations has recognized the right to water and sanitation as a “human right that is essential to the full enjoyment of life” (resolution 64/292). There have been significant subsequent victories such as: the adoption of this right in constitutional amendments in many South American and African countries; the success of the Italian referendum against the privatization of water management; the remunicipalization of water in Paris, Buenos Aires, Atlanta and in many other cities around the world; and for the first time, there have been legal proceedings involving the application of the human right to water.

We oppose the dominant economic and financial model that is in favour of privatizing and commoditizing water and sanitation services. Capitalist, extractive development has created dramatic and profound economic, social, and environmental crises. This approach, which considers water to be a commodity like any other, is unjust and ineffective in providing access to water and sanitation to all, and goes against the will and interests of the people.

In response to the growing privatization of water, we uphold water as the basic element of life on the planet and as a fundamental and inalienable human right; we insist that solidarity between present and future generations be guaranteed; we reject all forms of water privatization and declare that the management and control of water must be public, cooperative, participatory, equitable, and not for profit.

We demand that governments guarantee access to clean and safe water for all, in quantities that can sustain life. We call upon all governments to officially recognize the right to water and sanitation for all people in their national laws, in accordance with the UN resolution 64/292. We call upon governments to challenge the authority and legitimacy of the World Water Forum as a place for developing international water policy. The financial failings of the dominant economic thinking and the collapse of neoliberal, capitalist structures that lead to this situation make this clear: the World Water Forum and World Water Council have no legitimacy.

We call upon the UN General Assembly to organize a Democratic Global Summit on Water in October 2014 that will commit member states to implementing the human right to water and sanitation, in a manner accountable to the global community. The growing water crisis requires a legitimate, accountable, transparent, and democratic water summit. This summit must enable meaningful and open discussions with impacted communities, workers, indigenous peoples and civil society, and must result in binding commitments, not ministerial statements. To participate at the same level as today’s economic and political forces, civil society must obtain enough material and financial resources.

It is urgent and crucial to bring about “real democracy”: impacted populations should take part in the important decisions regarding water use, distribution and conservation, and for example, in water management or in the implementation of a large project. Citizens and associations must play an active role in water management. Governments must make efforts to accomplish this, by using political and financial resources to train citizens to be part of this exercise, and to develop educational activities about water.

The human right to water requires adequate public financing. The pattern of economic austerity in industrialized countries and structural adjustment in developing countries that has led governments to slash spending for vital water and sanitation services and allowed private corporations greater access to these sectors must end.

We call on States to finance public water and sanitation systems through progressive taxation, domestic and international financial transaction taxes, and to use funds for water instead of military purposes. We demand that governments guarantee no one will be excluded from access to water: in terms of household water bills, this should be done using a progressive system (based on income).

Quality public service in drinking water and sanitation, especially in big cities, is impossible to ensure without infrastructure and manpower. We support workers’ rights as expressed in the International Labour Organization conventions. Working conditions must be worthy, and workers must have the necessary tools to do their jobs and contribute to workplace democracy.

We reject the notion of “public-private partnerships”, and we are in favour of public and citizen-run water management. We wish to promote, create, and strengthen “public-public” and “public-citizen/public-community” partnerships. We call for public investment in these partnerships and the transfer of public sector knowledge to people and communities who need training in this area.

We recognize the value of community water management, implemented when public services are impossible or when the collective demand goes beyond mere service. In community management, water is provided in its multiplicity of functions, including those that are usually ignored: the spiritual, aesthetic, symbolic and cultural dimensions. This approach also gives communities an opportunity to reformulate their needs and mobilize forces in complementary projects related to agriculture, education, and community organization. We believe that the harmonious use of water leads to harmony within the community and that the quality of water management will reflect in the quality of society.

We defend the rights of indigenous peoples. We recognize the importance of their perception of the world, their practices, their traditional knowledge and customs, which are needed in order to build alternatives to the dominant value system based on pure economics.

We reaffirm the rights of women as central to the global water struggle. Having a vital role in providing and managing water supplies, women demand that knowledge be shared, particularly technical knowledge, to aid in the practical aspects of accessing water. They stand for participating in decision-making as equals, in water management, sanitation, hygiene, and all aspects of the process including scientific and technological aspects.

We support small-scale, family-run agriculture and demand food sovereignty that allows people to feed themselves, and access to water and land. We want agro-ecological production, which is adapted to climate change, respectful towards the environment, less water-intensive, and less polluting, to become a priority in industrialized and developing countries. We want agro-ecological farmers to be guaranteed their right to use water for agriculture to feed the cities and villages with quality food, by giving them adequate financing, and investing in smart rainwater collection techniques and water usage techniques, that are adapted to local capacities and take traditional practices into account.

We are against the industrial exploitation and extraction of natural commons in all its forms, especially mining and hydrocarbons including gas and shale oil, which keep pushing back the borderlines of “sacrifice zones” in order to supply raw material and energy, endangering access to water and its availability and quality for more and more people worldwide.

We not only denounce extractivist multinationals, but also international financial institutions, international treaties, and governments that support and apply this “development” model. The collusion of powers of these different players aims to inhibit the people’s expression and prevent alternative political propositions, on both local and global levels.

We call for a change in our consumer habits, in order to end over-consumption and the dogma about infinite growth, which pushes for an exponential acceleration of extracting natural resources.

We call upon the UN General Assembly to consider thinking about constructing a new model for cooperation between governments in order to exit an economic system based on frantic competition. This global economic war causes a spiral of overproduction and overconsumption that encourages continued, unlimited preying upon the biosphere, going far beyond satisfying basic needs. This leads to growing unrest in developed and developing countries.

We call for an energy transition based on reducing overall consumption, energy efficiency and giving priority to renewable energy over energy sources that are finite. The production and delivery of energy must be reoriented to satisfy the needs of the people and stop being managed by transnational interests and industrial over-consumption. Local, alternative and sustainble solutions must be prioritized, decentralizing production. This transition requires an immediate ban on drilling for oil and shale gas, oil sands, operating offshore oil-rigs, and in general, any hydrocarbon extraction that uses techniques that are dangerous for the environment and health.

We oppose with determination processes of commoditizing all aspects of life – nature, water, work - that trans-nationals and international finance try to capture with their plan for a “green economy”, supported by governments at the international conference Rio+20. We demand that governments reject the false solutions of this “green economy” - dams, nuclear energy, agrofuels, mono-agriculture and industrial forestry, commercial exploitation of bottled water – which far from resolving environmental and financial crises actually threaten the availability and quality of water.

We support economic systems that aim to guarantee well-being and a healthy environment for communities and not the pursuit of maximum individual wealth and over-inflated profits for business and finance.

We call upon governments to follow the guidelines from the world commission on dams and refrain from approving the directives from the Protocol on evaluating the durability of hydro-energy. We also ask that international organizations impose a moratorium on financing major dams.

We denounce the criminalization of social and environmental movements that fight for the right to water and against extractivism, and we demand that their protection be guaranteed. In particular we feel outrage at the murder on March 15, 2012, during FAME, of Bernardo Vásquez Sánchez, who opposed the mining project of the Canadian company Fortuna Silver Mines in Oaxaca, Mexico.

We reserve the right to show civil disobedience to confront the destruction of the environment, methods of subsistence, of quality of life and health.

We propose that an independent international legal system be set up in order to guarantee the right to water and sanitation: this right must be enforced throughout the world and crimes against this right must be stopped.

We call for the creation of an international penal court for environmental crimes.

We call for the preservation of the integrity of the water cycle in the framework of the recognition of the rights of ecosystems and species to exist, thrive, and reproduce. We call for the creation and recognition of the rights of nature in order to guarantee that the biosphere and its inhabitants get the protection needed for balance and sustainability.

We commit to continue building networks and new social alliances, broadening and deepening our connections with social movements fighting for food sovereignty, climate justice, democracy, and social and environmental justice. We will continue to coordinate activities around the world. We commit to involve both local authorities and parliamentarians who are determined to defend water as a common good and to reaffirm the right to freshwater for all human beings and nature. We are encouraging all public water utilities and communities of water users to collaborate, establishing national associations and regional networks.

We call upon all movements, networks, organizations who are part of the movement for water justice to make a commitment to mobilizing citizens for Rio+20, to make the Peoples’ Summit (June 15 to 23, 2012) and the day of global action (June 20, 2012) a grand, popular success. This will play a role in stopping the commodification and financialization of our lives and to impose our alternatives, which respond to today’s ecological, social, economic, and democratic crises.

We salute the determination and cohesion of our movement, the victories of today and tomorrow, and we are happy to pursue these joint efforts that go beyond countries and continents! FAME has met its objectives in its contribution to bringing the World Water Forum closer to an end. The path has been cleared to enforce the right to water and sanitation, a fundamental human right, and to make sure that water becomes once again a commons belonging to humanity and the biosphere.

Marseille, March 17, 2012.

Signing online of the declaration

Declaration of the participants at the Alternative World Water Forum

List of organizations who have signed the declaration

List of individuals who have signed the declaration

Occupied Palestine – For years, the United Nations Human Rights Committee and other UN bodies have found Israel to be in violation of Palestinians human right to water and sanitation as part of normal reviews of Israel’s compliance with human rights treaties ratified by Israel.

In 2010 the UN General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Council passed resolutions, which together reaffirm “that governments have the primary responsibility for the realization of all human rights, including the right to water and sanitation.”

Yet Israel’s violations of Palestinians human right to water and sanitation are only increasing. Between 2009 and 2011, Israel demolished 57 rainwater harvesting cisterns and 40 wells Palestinians depend on for their lives and livelihoods.ⁱ Military destruction of Palestinian water infrastructure is both a direct violation of the human right to water and a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Average household water consumption of Palestinians connected to a network is less than half the World Health Organization’s minimum recommended daily allowanceⁱⁱ and 1/6 of average Israeli household consumptionⁱⁱⁱ. Some of the poorest families are paying half of their income on water.

Israel’s obstruction of Palestinian water and sanitation development has prevented Palestinians from developing additional quantities of water agreed upon as part of the Oslo “peace process”^iv and has forced Palestinians into a state of dependence upon purchasing Palestinian water from the Israeli national water company Mekorot. Mekorot cuts supply to Palestinian communities in order to maintain unhindered service to Israeli colonies in the West Bank.

Israel’s illegal Wall through internationally recognized Palestinian land stands to cut Palestinians off from areas that would yield an addition 90 million cubic meters annually.^v Compare this amount to Palestinians total current water supply in the West Bank, which is just 180 million cubic meters, including water purchased from the Israeli national water company.^vi

The siege on Gaza prevents the entry of spare parts, materials and energy needed for the day-to-day functioning of the water and wastewater networks, and obstructs much needed development of these systems.  The United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict found that Israel intentionally targeted and destroyed wells, pipes, wastewater facilities, water reservoirs and the main power station.^vii More than 90% of water produced from municipal wells in Gaza is unsuitable for human consumption. Since 2005 Israel has damaged or destroyed more than 300 wells in a “buffer zone” unilaterally imposed by Israel inside of the territory of Gaza.^viii According to international water law Gaza has a right to an equitable and reasonable share of water from the Coastal Aquifer, including from those portions within Israel.

Israel has only newly begun allowing wastewater treatment projects in occupied Palestinian territory. After years of delays, including the murder of an on duty worker, projects in Gaza are now being implemented since Israel detected untreated and partially treated sewage released into the sea from Gaza at the Ashkelon desalination plant (12.5 kms, or 7.8 miles, directly north of Gaza). For fifteen years following Oslo, Israel directly obstructed the development of wastewater treatment facilities in the West Bank using first bureaucracy and then its military. Israel paid one contractor a 1-million shekel settlement admitting Israel was at fault when the military shut down a wastewater treatment project after it was fully permitted. Neighborhoods of Palestinian citizens of Israel often have poor sewage infrastructure despite paying equal or greater taxes than other Israeli citizens. A number of Israeli colonies release untreated sewage into Palestinian communities.^ix

The Israeli regime of institutionalized discrimination of Palestinians in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza constitutes apartheid under the Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid. The Russell Tribunal on Palestine concluded in its most recent session in Cape Town, South Africa, that, “Israel’s rule over the Palestinian people, wherever they reside, collectively amounts to a single integrated regime of apartheid”. A recent French parliamentary report condemned Israeli policies in withholding water from Palestinians as “apartheid”.

Israel’s violations must be seen within the context of the 1948 Nakba, the systematic expulsion and denial of the internationally recognized right of return of the majority of Palestinians from their homes. Since the establishment of the state of Israel, thousands of ancient springs, cisterns, wells, wadis and river streams have been illegally appropriated from Palestinians. Israel has also modified the hydrological character of the land it occupied, e.g., the drainage of Buheirat el Huleh (Hula Valley) by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) in the 1950s, and the diversion of the lower Jordan River waters, contributing to the dramatic shrinking of the Dead Sea. Just this month, Israel demolished the Bedouin village of Al Araquib in the Negev Desert a 36^th time in order to allow the JNF to plant a forest and “green the desert”.

We launch this declaration calling upon global citizens of conscience to take action for Palestinian water rights as members of the global water rights movement are organizing to resist the corporatization of our common water heritage. We launch this declaration here in Marseille, France, home to the World Water Council, the corporate think tank and lobby group founded by multinational corporations and the World Bank. As the World Water Council convenes the 6^th World Water Forum promoting the privatization of water and sanitation services, we call out the corporate members of this Council for profiting from the privatization of water and sanitation services globally – and in particular we call out the transnational French corporation Veolia for also providing sanitation services to the illegal Israeli settlement of Modin Illit which is colonizing Palestinian land, for illegally dumping garbage from Israel in the occupied Jordan Valley, and for profiting from apartheid transportation services that serve illegal colonies while denying Palestinians service. Our struggles are intricately linked. As we resist corporate and state profiteering from human rights violations in Palestine, we are resisting discrimination in access to water and promoting global water justice.

From Cochabamba, Bolivia to Palestine, we affirm the need for popular resistance to hold states and corporations accountable to a respect for human rights. Today as Palestinians are risking what is left of their land and their homes and the trickle of water that they are able to currently access in order to demand that they be recognized as human beings with human rights, we know that we must take concrete action to support the growing movement demanding an end to Israeli impunity for human rights violations, including the human rights to water and sanitation.

Given the abject failure of world government to hold Israel accountable for its persistent violations of international law, including the right to water, Palestinians have called for people of conscience around the world to implement boycotts of, divestment from and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, inspired by the international nonviolent struggle that succeeded in ending apartheid in South Africa. The pillars of the movement are based on international law and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people with a goal of achieving freedom, justice and equality for all irrespective of race and creed.

As global citizens in an increasingly interconnected world it is imperative that we take action in our communities to protect the human rights of our brothers and sisters globally.

With the goal of holding Israel accountable so that Palestinians have their rights to water restituted and achieve self-determination with their full set of rights, we, activists for water justice, declare our support for the Palestinian-led BDS movement. In particular we pledge to:

1. Oppose the corporate expansion of the Israeli national water company, Mekorot, into international markets, Mekorot being one of the key instruments in denying Palestinians their water rights

2. Boycott Israeli agricultural produce, campaigning to exclude Israeli agricultural companies (e.g. Mehadrin) from access to foreign markets and expose their role in the takeover of Palestinian land and water resources

3. Support the Stop the JNF campaign and educate others about JNF’s “greenwashing” of Israeli crimes

4. Boycott and divest from Veolia, the largest privatizer of public water supply in the world, and a main profiteer of Israeli apartheid

5. Call for government sanctions on Israel, in particular, the end of all water-related cooperation agreements