International Day of Water

Alternative World Water Forum, March 17-20, 2005, Geneva
 http://www.fame2005.org

Water Privatization: Issues and Debates:  http://www.citizen.org/cmep/Water/articles.cfm?ID=10842
Blue Planet Project:  http://www.blueplanetproject.net/

March 14, 2005 marks the eighth annual International Day of Action for Rivers

"Each year on March 14, tens of thousands of people take to the streets and to their rivers to demand a stop to destructive river development projects. The Day of Action is a time for people around the world to celebrate, educate and demonstrate the importance of healthy rivers to people’s lives and livelihoods."
Other actions worldwide include:
A seminar in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, where citizens challenge officials about their plans to resettle local people living by the Msunduzi River for the development of a large shopping center.
In the Chubut mountain range in Argentina, the Mapuche peoples and farmers join in solidarity to resist the injustice to their life and culture from the Carrenleufu River dams, mining in the region, and privatization of resources.
Citizens in Sydney, Australia, paddle down the Nepean River to protest the world’s largest mining company’s plans to mine for coal under the Nepean River.
In Medan, Indonesia, a children’s painting competition builds awareness about the Deli River and the meaning of water for life.
And in Pakistan, activists hold a river blessing ceremony and hunger strike in response to the proposed Kalabagh Dam and Thal Canal on the Indus River.
For more information, see  http://www.irn.org/dayofaction


The International Anti–Dam Movement



Excerpted from Silenced Rivers: The Ecology and Politics of Large Dams by Patrick McCully.
Zed Books, London, 1996.

We Will Not Move: The International Anti–Dam Movement
Koi nahi hatega, bandh nahi banega
(No one will move, the dam will not be built)
Doobenge par hatenge nahin
(We will drown but we will not move)
Slogans of the Narmada Bachao Andolan
The decade since the mid–1980s has seen the emergence of an international movement against current dam–building practices. The movement is comprised of thousands of environmental, human rights, and social activist groups on all the world’s continents except Antarctica. It coalesced from a multitude of local, regional and national anti–dam campaigns and a smaller number of support groups working at an international level. Dam builders recognize and bemoan its effectiveness. ICOLD President Wolfgang Pircher warned the British Dam Society in 1992 that the industry faced ’a serious general counter–movement that has already succeeded in reducing the prestige of dam engineering in the public eye, and it is starting to make work difficult for our profession.’

The earliest successful anti–dam campaigns were mostly led by conservationists trying to preserve wilderness areas. Until recently, resistance from those directly impacted by dams was usually defeated. Since the 1970s, however, directly affected people have gained the power to stop dams, mostly because they have built alliances with sympathetic outsiders – environmentalists, human rights and democracy activists, peasants’ and indigenous peoples’ organizations, fishers and recreationists. The rise of environmentalism has greatly helped the opponents of dams – and anti–dam campaigns have in many countries played an important role in the growth of national environmental movements. Other factors contributing to the emergence of the international movement have been the overthrow of authoritarian regimes and the spread of modern communication technologies.

Dam opponents are not just ’antis’, but are advocates for what they see as more sustainable, equitable and efficient technologies and management practices. Political changes which would best encourage the preservation or adoption of these technologies and practices have been a central demand of many anti–dam campaigns. Struggles that have started with the aim of improving resettlement terms or of stopping an individual dam have matured into movements advocating an entirely different model of political and economic development. That decision making be transparent and democratic is now seen by many dam opponents as being as important as the decisions themselves. The clearest illustration of the wider political importance of anti–dam movements is the crucial role that dam struggles played in the pro–democracy movements of the 1980s in Eastern Europe and South America...

Activists working at the local, national and international levels have together managed to seriously tarnish the lure of large dams as icons of progress and plenty. To many people, large dams have instead become symbols of the destruction of the natural world and of the corruption and arrogance of over–powerful and secretive corporations, bureaucracies and governments. Although hundreds of large dams are still under construction and many more are on the engineers’ drawing boards, aid funds and other public sector sources of financing are drying up, and public protests are provoked by just about every large dam that is now proposed in a democratic country. The international dam industry appears to be entering a recession from which it may never escape.

 http://www.irn.org/dayofaction/index.asp?id=background3.html
River Links:  http://www.irn.org/index.asp?id=links/damfighters.html
Friends of River Narmada:  http://www.narmada.org

Water Conflict Chronology:  http://www.worldwater.org/conflict.htm
Human right to Water (PDF):  http://pacinst.org/reports/basic_water_needs/human_right_to_water.pdf

Urgent call to help stop water privatization in Bolivia
Clean and affordable water is a basic human right, but right now, citizens in El Alto, Bolivia are struggling to protect their water supply from privatization by multinational corporate giant, Suez. The people have been protesting by hunger strikes, blockades and civil disobedience, including the refusal to pay water bills. They have rejected the government's proposal to create a supposed "New Model" of a public/private partnership, where Suez would continue to hold 35 percent of the shares.
The government decided to cancel the contract in January this year because the company, Aguas del Illimani (Suez is the mayor shareholder), failed to deliver water to 200,000 people in El Alto, and had no plans to do so in the future. The people demanded the immediate withdrawal of Suez from Bolivia, and for the government to make an intervention in the company to investigate how it was being run. The government has refused this demand. Instead, with support from the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank and German Cooperation GTZ, they intend to create a Public Private Partnership.
The community is asking for a Public-Social Company, controlled by the mayoralties of El Alto and La Paz (also served by Suez),to be set up. Its management would include Neighborhood associations and the Vice-minister of Basic services.


22. März: Weltwassertag

Millionen Kinder leiden Wassernot
Verschmutztes Wasser tötet jeden Tag weltweit 4.000 Kinder. "Trinkwassermangel und fehlende Hygiene sind Hauptursachen der hohen Kindersterblichkeit in vielen Ländern der Erde", berichtete gestern in Köln der Vorsitzende von Unicef Deutschland, Reinhard Schlagintweit. Anlässlich des heutigen Weltwassertags fordert er die Verbesserung der Wasserversorgung in der Dritten Welt. Der Tag des Wassers markiert den Beginn der UN-Dekade zur Wasserversorgung. Rund 400 Millionen Kinder haben laut Unicef derzeit nicht einmal 20 Liter Wasser am Tag zur Verfügung. Fast jedes fünfte Kind der Erde müsse damit ohne das absolute Minimum an Wasser auskommen. Zum Vergleich: In Deutschland liegt der Verbrauch pro Kopf bei täglich 130 Litern.

Das Geschäft mit privatem Trinkwasser:  http://www.taz.de/pt/2005/03/22/a0150.nf/text
Wasser darf nicht zur Ware degradiert werden:  http://www.jungewelt.de/2005/03-21/006.php
Privatisierung der Wasserversorgung in Jakarta: Teuer und giftig:  http://www.jungewelt.de/2005/03-22/012.php


Hunderte BürgerInnen stellten sich vor die Donau

Niederalteich. Hunderte BürgerInnen demonstrierten am 13. März eindrucksvoll, was sie von der Staatsregierung erwarten: Die Donau soll auch in Zukunft frei fließen! Mit dabei waren die Gemeinde Niederalteich, vertreten durch ihren Bürgermeister, der Bund Naturschutz (BN) als Organisator und weitere Verbände. In einer Menschenkette stellten sich die circa 800 BürgerInnen schützend vor die Donau.

Die Menschenkette stand genau dort, wo nach den Vorstellungen der Staatsregierung die Donau gestaut und die Mühlhamer Schleife durch einen Schleusenkanal vom Fluss abgetrennt werden soll. BN-Vorsitzender Prof. Dr. Hubert Weiger zeigte den Skandal um das laufende Raumordnungsverfahren für Staustufen auf und führte den ökonomischen wie ökologischen Wahnsinn einer Donau-Kanalisierung vor Augen. Die Botschaft von BN und BürgerInnen war eindeutig: "Wir wollen keine Staustufen. Die frei fließende Donau steht unter unserem Schutz!"

Informationen gegen den Donauausbau:  http://www.bn-deggendorf.de