International Network of Citizens Groups Oppose Global Water Privatization
Plans at Upcoming World Water Forum

An expanding international coalition of public interest, human rights, women’s organizations and consumer advocacy organizations today criticized the increased corporate control and pro-privatization platform of the World Water Council (WWC) in the days leading up to the 3rd World Water Forum in Kyoto, Japan. Hundreds of groups from around the globe will attend Mar. 16-22 to reject the privatization policies, corporations and agencies that will dominate the conference agenda.

Citing the recently released report, "Financing Water for All" by Michel Camdessus, the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund, and a leaked draft of the Ministerial Declaration that will be announced at the end of the Forum, as evidence of how private sector financing, as well as the promotion of major dams and water diversions, is monopolizing the future of global water policy, the groups rejected the notion that privatization is the answer to water scarcity problems. Further, the leaked documents prove the WWC, while claiming to be independent, supports the public-private partnership approach to water supply, which is a euphemism for privatization. Local accountability and control are often lost in privatization plans.

The Camdessus report is customized to complement the Ministerial Declaration that is advocating the “new mechanisms of Public Private Partnerships (PPP)” all the while suggesting that “a reference to Camdessus Panel [will be] considered later and may be added”. Camdessus is calling for drastic changes in the financing of water delivery systems, based on a model of full cost recovery - World Bank lingo for increasing consumer fees to cover the full cost of operations, including profits. This model targets poor populations who cannot afford increased water rates. The financing proposal is geared more towards using public money to protect investors against risks than providing access to safe and affordable water for all peoples.

Essentially, the Camdessus report proposes a franchising model for global water corporations in order to bolster private enterprise. Citizens groups across the globe are condemning the report as a blueprint for global water corporations to profit from water systems through a market model that will do nothing to improve access to quality water in developing countries.

The coalition plans to release an alternate vision statement during the forum as a direct challenge to the World Water Council's declaration. The principle of the statement prescribes water to be an inalienable human right for all people and will explain how water accessibility and quality can be achieved without making it a commodified good left to the whims of money markets.

The 1st World Water Forum, held in Morocco in 1996, was the brainchild of the World Water Council. Established in 1995, the WWC is comprised of representatives of the World Bank, multinational corporations, and government agencies. The disproportionate influence of corporations and infrastructure building agencies on the WWC is revealed in its policy prescriptions for more large dams as well as more privatization, commodification and profit maximization of the water sector.

Since the first WWF, there has been a swelling divide between the private corporations and governments that want to treat water as a profit-generating commodity and the movement of people across the globe who view water as a precious resource to be held in the public trust.

To read the Camdessus report, please go to http://www.worldwatercouncil.org/download/CamdessusReport.pdf.

To learn more about the World Water Forum, go to http://www.worldwaterforum.org/.

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