The Blue Planet Project (BPP) is celebrating World Water Day by bringing international attention to the importance of global water justice by:

1. Launching Public Water for All, the first module in our Water Justice Toolkit. This resource is aimed at supporting frontline communities in their struggles against the corporate takeover of water.

Thanks to the collective efforts of water justice organizations from around the world, the “Public Water for All” toolkit includes:

• A guide to remunicipalization, which draws from extensive research on the successful efforts of communities to reverse privatization.
• A backgrounder on public financing to help counter the myths propagated by international financial institutions and other proponents of private financing.
• A case study on public-community partnerships in Latin America, providing communities with a powerful alternative to privatization.

The tools are copyleft and can be downloaded here, reprinted and distributed as needed. It is our intent that these resources serve to raise public awareness, as background information for meetings with local government, or as discussion tools for community activists.

2. Maude Barlow, global leader in the fight for the human right to water and the BPP’s chairperson, is in Paris, marking the occasion of Paris becoming the newest Blue Community.

Maude Barlow presenting Celia Blauel, Deputy Mayor of Paris, with a Blue Community certificate. March 21, 2016.

The Blue Communities Project is a joint initiative of the BPP, the Council of Canadians and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).

A “blue community” is one that adopts a water commons framework by:

• Recognizing water as a human right.
• Banning the sale of bottled water in public facilities and at municipal events.
• Promoting publicly financed, owned and operated water and wastewater services.

Because water is central to all life on earth, it must be governed by principles that allow for reasonable use, equal distribution and responsible treatment in order to preserve water for nature and future generations.

Yesterday, Maude presented city officials with a Blue Community certificate and spoke on a panel with the deputy mayor, elected officials, and other water activists.

3. BPP’s International Water Campaigner, Meera Karunananthan, is at the United Nations as part of a panel discussion on Women, Water and Wellbeing. This interactive dialogue will address the human rights to water and sanitation and water justice for women.

This panel is part of civil society’s engagement in the UN Commission on the Status of Women session taking place at the UN this week – an annual two-week event allowing governments, CSOs and UN agencies to discuss women’s rights and empowerment within global and domestic policy areas. This year’s theme includes the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The BPP will highlight the intersections between our work on the human right to water and sanitation within the SDGs and women’s rights. Our intervention will specifically address the gendered impacts of water privatization.

The Blue Planet Project (BPP) is a global initiative working with partners around the world to achieve water justice based on the principles that water is a human right, a public trust, and part of the global commons.