Agence France-Presse reports today that, “A global ministerial meeting was putting the final touches here Saturday to resolutions for tackling the world’s water crisis but activists attacked the process as a corporate-driven fraud.”
FINAL DECLARATION REJECTS WATER AS A HUMAN RIGHT “The communique to be issued by more than 100 countries on World Water Day on Sunday…describes access to safe drinking water and sanitation as ‘a basic human need.'”
“France, Spain and several Latin American countries were striving to beef up this reference, from ‘need’ to ‘right,’ a change that could have legal ramifications.”
BARLOW SAYS MEETING SHOULD BE PLACED UNDER UN FLAG “Maude Barlow, senior advisor to the president of the UN General Assembly, said the Forum promoted privatisation of resources by ‘the lords of water’ and excluded dissident voices. She called for the meeting to be placed under the UN flag. ‘We demand that the allocation of water be decided in an open, transparent and democratic forum rather than in a trade show for the world’s large corporations,’ Barlow told a press conference.”
WWC PRESIDENT REJECTS UN CONERENCE IDEA
“(World Water Council) president, Loic Fauchon, rejected charges of elitism and exclusion. ‘Everyone is invited, and in any case, everyone comes these days,’ he told AFP. He added: ‘If it (the Forum) were organised by the United Nations, it would lose its characteristic of being open to all. In a UN conference, not everyone who wants to come can participate. In the World Water Forum, anyone can take part.'”
“Grassroots campaigners have complained of high registration fees, of geographical separation from the main conference events and of overbearing security.”
The full article is at
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hjgNc8QWeeiXUuw3vZrKcHH1yluw
