Final Declaration Holds Diluted View of Water as
a "Right"
Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, Mar 22 (IPS) - The assertion that
access to water is a
human right was not included in the ministerial
declaration adopted at
the Fourth World Water Forum, which ended in
Mexico on Wednesday, World
Water Day.

Although all of the delegates said they agreed
with the principle, some
argued that it was not feasible to include it in
the final declaration,
because it could generate legal problems at the
national and
international level.

That stance was criticised by activists, who said
the refusal to include
the assertion was "a clear indication" that
transnational corporations
and rich countries do not want to budge an inch
in their aim to
"commodify" water, to which 1.1 billion people in
the world do not have
access.

Water is a "guarantee of life for all of the
world's people" was the
compromise formula agreed by the government
delegates taking part in the
Mar. 16-22 Forum.

The delegates of the 148 participating countries
agreed to sign the
(non-binding) document, in which the governments
pledged to work towards
the goal of universal access to sanitation and
safe water, after
negotiating the inclusion of an annex that
expresses a dissenting view
held by several governments.

In the appendix, Bolivia, Cuba and Venezuela
expressed a stance in line
with the positions set forth by the activists
taking part in a parallel
civil society forum, stating unequivocally that
access to water is a
fundamental human right.

The three Latin American countries, which are
governed by leftist
leaders, also expressed "deep concern" over the
possible negative
impacts that international instruments like free
trade and investment
agreements could have on water resources.

By contrast to the final declaration, the United
Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)
also declared Wednesday in
Mexico that access to water is a fundamental
human right.

UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura said
nations that are
signatories to U.N. treaties have a "moral
obligation" to consider water
a human right.

According to the activists who took part in the
Mar. 17-19 International
Forum in Defence of Water, a civil society
gathering that produced an
alternative declaration, the dissent expressed at
the Forum showed that
the organisers were only interested in turning
water management into a
business opportunity.

"We didn't expect anything different or better to
emerge from the Water
Forum, we knew this would happen," Claudia
Campero, spokeswoman for the
Coalition of Mexican Organisations for the Right
to Water (COMDA) -
which organised the alternative events held
parallel to the World Water
Forum - told IPS.

The Forum itself was convened by the World Water
Council, an
international think tank founded in 1996 that
deals with water policy
and is made up of 300 representatives of
business, government
ministries, academic centres, multilateral
financial institutions, U.N.
agencies and local governments.

Because the founders of the Council included
executives from
multinational water companies like Suez in
France, activists argue that
the World Water Forums only represent and express
the interests of
transnational corporations and industrialised
countries..

According to the "Joint Declaration of Movements
in Defence of Water",
which was adopted by last week's civil society
meeting and signed by
around 300 non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
from 40 countries,
water is a "common good" and access to water is
an essential and
inalienable right.

The "Joint Declaration" states that water is not
merchandise, which is
why the NGOs reject all forms of privatisation,
even public-private
partnerships, which "have proven to be a complete
failure around the
world."

Argentine Environment Secretary Atilio Armando
Sabino argued that the
exclusion from the final declaration of the
assertion that the right to
water is a human right did not tarnish the
consensus achieved by the
governments that sent delegates to the World
Water Forum.

Underscoring that water is a "guarantee of life"
for humanity
demonstrated sincere concern over the issue on
the part of all
governments, he maintained.

It was "a bit difficult" to include the right to
water in the
ministerial declaration because it would have
committed many countries
to modifying their legislation and would have
forced international
bodies to create new legal instruments, explained
the official.

The document declares that water and sanitation
services must be
considered top priority in development policies,
and that continued
efforts and follow-up are necessary to meet the
goal of reducing the
proportion of people worldwide without access to
these crucial services.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agreed by
the U.N. member
countries in 2000 include a target of halving the
proportion of people
without safe drinking water, by 2015.

Eugenio Barrios, an activist with the global
environmental conservation
organisation WWF (formerly known as the World
Wildlife Fund), described
the Fourth World Water Forum as "disappointing."

"We were hoping for advances and for the
ministerial declaration to be
much more forceful, and to propose practical
measures in favour of
access to water. We are sorry that did not
happen," Barrios told IPS.

WWF took part in the Forum through several
conferences as well as
meetings with delegates.

The privatisation of water supplies, which
according to some activists
was the ultimate goal of the Forum, was not a
central issue in the
debates, and the stance that water is a public
good was also advocated,
said Barrios.

David Boys, with the France-based Public Services
International, a
global trade union federation made up of more
than 600 public sector
unions from 140 countries, agreed with that view.
"Even the World Bank
acknowledged here that the privatisation of water
has been a failure,
which was something new that was not heard at the
previous forums," he
told IPS.

But the final declaration was "very weak," said
Boys, whose organisation
has urged the World Water Council not to invite
government ministers in
the future, since the Forum is neither organised
by the United Nations
nor by governments.

"It is the United Nations that should organise
international conferences
on water, not a private body," said the trade
unionist.

More than 13,000 delegates of private companies,
governments and U.N.
agencies, as well as a limited number of
activists, took part in the
Forum, paying registration fees that ranged from
240 to 600 dollars.

Although the World Water Forum is not an official
intergovernmental
meeting, it is considered the main platform for
the global debate on
water resources. The Fifth World Water Forum will
be held in Istanbul in
2009.

The last day of the Fourth World Water Forum
coincided with World Water
Day, which is commemorated every year on Mar. 22.

In a statement released in New York, U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan
declared that despite its importance, water
continues to be "wasted and
degraded all over the world." He also pointed out
that 6,000 people,
mainly children, die every day from water-related
causes. (END/2006)


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