News
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Water to be a human right?
A resolution before the UN General Assembly this week seeks to declare the right to water and sanitation as a human right – a move that should give a push to address the severe and increasing global water crisis. THERE is almost nothing more important to human beings than water. We cannot live without water…
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The Right to Water
By MIKHAIL GORBACHEV The right of every human being to safe drinking water and basic sanitation should be recognized and realized. The United Nations estimates that nearly 900 million people live without clean water and 2.6 billion without proper sanitation. Water, the basic ingredient of life, is among the world’s most prolific killers. At least…
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Water as Human Right Threatens to Split World Body
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 15, 2010 (IPS) – A long outstanding proposal to recognise the right to water as a basic universal human right is threatening to split the world’s rich and poor nations. Opposition to the proposal is coming mostly from Western nations, says Maude Barlow, a global water advocate and a founder of the…
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A human right Canada rejects: Access to clean water
On June 17, Pablo Solon, the Bolivian ambassador to the United Nations, presented a draft resolution declaring the human right to “available, safe, acceptable, accessible and affordable water and sanitation” to a closed-door consultation at the UN General Assembly that will be dealt with over the next several weeks. This is the first time the…
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Securing the right to water in Bolivia
Clean and affordable water is a basic human right, but right now, citizens in El Alto, Bolivia are struggling to regain control of their local water supply from multinational corporate giant, Suez. As a condition for a World Bank loan, the public water system in El Alto was privatized in 1997. Eight years later, despite…
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Joint Declaration of the Movements in Defense of Water
From March 14 to 19th, we, human beings with a holistic vision of life, activists from social movements, non-governmental organizations, and networks that struggle throughout the world in the defense of water and territory and for the commons, have shared ideas, struggles, worries and proposals. At the same time we have realized how our struggles…
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Anil Naidoo speaks at the Second International Forum for Water and the Environment in Bogota, Columbia
Companeros and Companeras, First, I am honoured to be here and send congratulations to the people of Colombia and the key organizations which are working on this campaign on your historic water referendum. I am also humbled to be able to be asked to speak in support of the critical work of the citizens of…
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WIN! Water referendum appeal accepted by the Colombian Congress
A media release issued by our ally CENSAT Agua Viva states that, “The committee of Promoters of the Water Referendum welcomes and thanks the Chamber of Representatives for its acceptation of the appeal brought forward by the committee by means of their spokesperson, Rafael Colmenares, which opens the road for reconsideration for return to the…
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Blackfire mine in Mexico shut down over environmental concerns
The Canadian Press reports that, “A Mexican mine run by a Canadian company embroiled in a controversy around the death of a local activist (Abarca Roblero) has been shut down over environmental concerns.” “Abarca Roblero was known as a passionate critic of Blackfire, which he blamed for contaminating local rivers and for killing local crops…
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Uruguay Victory an Inspiration to the Water Movement
On October 31, 2004, the people of Uruguay made history by being the first people in the world to vote on the human right to water. By an almost two-thirds majority, the people of Uruguay voted to amend their constitution to ensure not only that access to piped water and sanitation is a fundamental human…