News
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NEWS: De Albuquerque issues warning memo to US city on the right to water and sanitation
The Sacramento Press reports, “Catarina de Albuquerque, the Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation for the United Nations human right council, has issued a four-page memo warning Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson that local officials could be violating the human rights of the homeless people living within the city. In…
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NEWS: Canadian pension funds and privatized water in England
United Kingdom-based journalist Neil Clark writes in the Guardian UK, “Ofwat has announced that average household water and sewerage bills in England and Wales are to increase by an average of 5.7% from April. As in the case with the (increase in) rail fares, we’re told that the reason that prices are rising is to…
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Bangalore World Water Summit faces Protest from Rights Groups
New Delhi, February 1 : One can’t say if it is mere coincidence that the Bangalore World Water Summit (February 1-3) opens up today and on the same day major national dailies carry advertisements for India Water Week (April 10 – 14) to be held in New Delhi and organised by Ministry of Water Resources,…
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Protesting outside the Canadian Embassy… again.
Last Wednesday several struggles related to Canadian mining corporations in Mexico met at the Embassy. This time the mobilization happened because of the death of Bernardo Méndez from San José del Progreso, Oaxaca. Bernardo was part of a demonstration against the intention of the municipality and Cuzcatlán, subsidiary company of Fortuna Silver, of giving additional…
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Proposed Revisions in National Water Policy Call for Privatisation of Water
New Delhi: The Hindu, India’s leading English daily, recently reported after accessing the first draft of the proposed revisions to the National Water Policy sent to experts for their comments. The Hindu report by Gargi Parsai said, the Union government has begun consultations on a new National Water Policy that calls for privatisation of water-delivery…
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UPDATE: Observações do Brasil
On Friday, I posed questions that I hoped to find answers to through discussions related to the thematic social forum here in Porto Alegre. I wouldn’t presume that the answers I’ve come up with are definitive, and truthfully I just have more questions now, but I wanted to offer these ‘observations from Brazil’ in the…
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UPDATE: Their green economy = water privatization, commodification
I am in Porto Alegre, Brasil with Blue Planet Project organizer Anil Naidoo for a Thematic Social Forum (titled ‘Capitalist Crisis, Social and Environmental Justice’), which is a primary civil society organizing moment in advance of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) – more commonly referred to as Rio+20 – set to be…
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UPDATE: Civil society issues a challenge for Rio+20
We are in the Gasometro, the home-base of this thematic social forum (forum social tematico) in Porto Alegre, for a session on the ‘Public act towards the Peoples’ Summit at Rio+20′. Speaker after speaker from various countries are denouncing the green economy. One speaker highlights, “The green economy wants to legitimize capitalism which is in…
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UPDATE: A complicated picture emerges for Rio+20 organizing
It’s the end of a first day (11 pm local time) for me in Porto Alegre, Brasil at informal meetings related to the World Social Forum ‘thematic forum’, which aims to lay the groundwork for a popular response to the Rio+20 Earth Summit this June. A very complicated picture is emerging here. Tierramerica reports, “Large-scale…
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UPDATE: Thematic social forum in Porto Alegre plans for Rio+20
I have just arrived in Sao Paolo, Brazil en route to Porto Alegre where a thematic social forum is now underway focused on the Rio+20 Earth Summit that will take place in June. The upcoming United Nations summit had raised some hope that world leaders could come together in an inclusive forum that would begin…