Water Justice News
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‘This is damning evidence of the dangers of handing control of public services to private firms’
A MASSIVE £4.8 billion of public money is being paid to multinational corporations to run water-works that are plagued with breakdowns and pollution, an investigation by the Sunday Herald has revealed. Internal reports from Scottish Water lay bare for the first time the scandal of contracts signed under the private finance initiative (PFI) backed by…
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Vermont water as a public trust law challenges quarry permit
The Burlington Free Press reports that, “In the first cases involving Vermont’s 2008 groundwater protection law, an state Environmental Court judge has ruled that regulators must take additional steps to consider the impact on groundwater when reviewing projects with a potential to pollute.” “Judge Merideth Wright on Wednesday reopened a permit issued last year by…
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WIN! Judge orders construction of Zapotillo dam suspended
The Inter Press Service has reported that the Zapotillo dam in Mexico “would divert the course of the Verde river and carry water to the cities of León and Guadalajara. The project, to be completed by late 2012, also involves the construction of a 140-km aqueduct from the dam, pumping plants, a disinfection plant, a…
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Victory for Kalahari Bushmen as court grants right to water
In a momentous decision, Botswana’s Court of Appeal today quashed a ruling that denied the Kalahari Bushmen access to water on their ancestral lands. With support from Survival, the Bushmen appealed a 2010 High Court judgment that prevented them from accessing a well which they rely on for water. The panel of five Appeal Court judges has…
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Kalahari Bushmen win right to water in Botswana court decision
Survival International reports this morning that, “In a momentous decision, Botswana’s Court of Appeal today quashed a ruling that denied the Kalahari Bushmen access to water on their ancestral lands. …Celebrating after the decision, a Bushman spokesman said, ‘We are very happy that our rights have finally been recognized. Like any human beings, we need…
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Bushmen ‘determined’ as legal battle over water approaches climax
On January 17th, Botswana’s Court of Appeal will begin a hearing to decide whether Kalahari Bushmen living on their ancestral lands have the right to water. The Bushmen, who returned to their lands in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve after a previous court victory, are appealing against a 2010 High Court ruling that denied their…
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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…