Uruguayan water justice activist Adriana Marquisio Cáceres and Blue Planet Project campaigner Meera Karunananthan.
Ottawa-based Blue Planet Project campaigner Meera Karunananthan is at the 5th continental assembly for La Red Vida (The Life Network), which is taking in Medellin, Colombia September 23-28.
Also known as the Inter-American Network for the Defense of the Right to Water, La Red Vida was formed in 2003 when 54 organizations from 16 countries came together in common cause to defend public water and sanitation services.
Researchers, policy-makers, trade unionists and activists are in Medellin this week to challenge privatization, assert the right to community management of water, and to share information and discuss strategies A Brazilian organization notes, “The 5th assembly includes representatives from Argentina, Chile, El Salvador, Mexico, Uruguay, Bolivia, Colombia, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama, Canada, Ecuador, Honduras, Peru and Brazil. Participants will share information on the scenarios of public management in each country, establishing strategies to combat the growth of privatization and renew the struggle for basic sanitation as a right of citizens.”
Yesterday Karunananthan tweeted:
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Festive start to Aguas para Paz- meeting of Colombian community water associations in Medellin today. -
The earth is our common home. Borders were not created by the people but by powerful interests: Oscar Olivera -
Colombian community associations building a citizen’s #water law @ workshop in Medellin. -
Without water there is no life and we could not speak of human rights, justice and peace: Javier Marquez, Medellin -
In Casanere, petrol industry destroys water and biodiversity. #AguaSiPetroleoNo #waterforpeoplenotprofit -
“The minerals in our territory = threat, not source of wealth” says activist from Boyacan, Colombia #WaterIsLife
Blue Planet Project founder Maude Barlow has written, “The fight for water justice in Colombia is complicated by the unstable political climate and ongoing tensions between left and right in the country. Those fighting for their water rights are automatically assumed to be on the left – ‘green on the outside but red on the inside’ – and subject to threats from paramilitary and other right wing gangs. In fact, Kimy Pernia Domico, a great water warrior and friend to whom my book Blue Gold was dedicated, was ‘disappeared’ by Colombian paramilitary just a month before he was slated to speak at our 2001 Vancouver conference, Water for People and Nature.”
Barlow has just signed a statement along with other Right Livelihood Award recipients expressing their full support for the peace agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), recognizing it as a “step to the establishment of a solid and stable peace in Colombia for the coming years for full reconciliation, social justice and dignity in this nation”. Al Jazeera reports, “As part of the agreement, FARC will continue to push for social change as a political party, receiving 10 unelected seats in congress until 2026. FARC’s leaders have been coy on policy details but are expected to morph the group into a party rooted in Marxist ideals.” The agreement will be signed on Monday (September 26).
Karunananthan was also at the 4th assembly for La Red Vida that took place in October 2012 in Mexico City.
For more on La Red Vida, please see their Facebook page here.
