Maude Barlow

National Chairperson
Council of Canadians

Perspective

Civil Society at the 3rd World Water Forum: A Personal Account

I have recently returned from the 3rd World Water Forum which took place March 16-22, 2003, in Kyoto, Japan, and want to share my thoughts about this extraordinary event.

The World Water Forum (WWF) is the brainchild of the World Water Council (WWC), a policy think tank run by the World Bank and regional banks such as the Asia Development Bank as well as the major water corporations, such as Vivendi and Suez. The WWC holds a global forum every three years, which has all the appearance of a United Nations convention. Workshops and panels on every aspect of water are held and the convenors produce their own "theme statements" which are pulled together into official recommendations by the WWF for future action. The forum hosts a ministerial meeting with senior politicians and bureaucrats from around the world who produce their own "Ministerial Statement" that carries great weight back in their home countries and at the United Nations.

In reality, however, the WWF is not an official UN conference, although there is some UN participation at the forum. In truth - and this is the heart of the civil society criticism of the WWC - it is a showcase for corporations who are moving in on the global water services business and the financial and trade institutions that back them.

Backed by the World Bank and the IMF, a handful of transnational corporations are seeking to cartelise the world's water delivery and wastewater systems. Already Vivendi and Suez of France deliver private water services to more than 200 million customers in 150 countries. Now they are moving into new markets in the developing world. These companies have huge profits, charge at prices which allow full-cost recovery including profits for shareholders, and they cut off consumers who cannot pay. Corporations are now involved in the construction of massive pipelines to carry fresh water long distances for commercial sale. The World Bank admits that water will soon be moved around the world as oil is now. And water privatisation is protected in international trade regimes such as the WTO. Is this how we secure water for all as a basic human right?

At this year's Forum, there was an intense debate on the whole issue of public-private partnerships (PPPs). The water companies and the World Bank are promoting PPPs as a means of compromise. No longer are they seeking control over water, they claim; they now just want to deliver water, and keep governments in control of the process. However, in their system, governments still get to take most of the risk while the companies still get to take the profit. We at the Blue Planet Project believe there is an alternative that is both feasible and fair: public-community partnerships.

One example is in Porto Alegre, Brazil, where the public company, Corsan, works alongside locally elected community councils in order to ensure that a fair price is being charged for water and that water is not being used for political purposes. In fact, Corsan sent people to Bolivia when the local community had to take over the running of its water services (after they forced Bechtel to leave) and they shared their expertise with people who had never run a public system before. At the Blue Planet Project, although we are opposed to private control of water, we recognize that sometimes governments fail too. Water rights are too precious to be left to governments alone. Public sector helping public sector with the involvement of the community, is the best solution for a water-secure future.

As I climbed on the plane to return home, my mind raced to understand the meaning of this incredible week. There had been hard deliberations about whether we should attend the 3rd WWF at all. After all, this is really a show of the World Bank, some argued; you'll never change their minds. But we didn't set out to change their minds. We set out to register to all those groups, governments, UN agencies and media who take the World Water Council seriously, that the WWC doesn't speak for us or the millions and perhaps billions of the world's people who do not want the planet's dwindling supplies of fresh water to be commodified and put on the open market for sale. And we were able to make ourselves heard - and have our views officially recorded in the Forum documents. At least we can claim with modest pride that our goal of breaking the consensus and putting forth an alternative vision, was achieved.

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1st May 2003