AfDs Defending Water for Life Campaign
Spring Forward
Plan education and actions now for March and to April and May
Water is the essence of life. But, now, because water resources are
finite and increasingly polluted, a public resource for the benefit of
all has become Blue Gold for corporate profit. This is unacceptable!
To ensure safe and affordable water for all now and in the future, we
must work together to oppose any proposals to shift operation or
ownership of public systems to private corporations and counter corporate
marketing strategies, such as for bottled water, that promote water as
just another commercial good rather than a resource the most essential
of the commons - to be held in the public trust.
Over the past three years, AfDs Defending Water for Life Campaign has
been involved in the New England area and California, working with our
members and allies to preserve and expand local democratic control of
water resources and water services. The campaign has worked in coalition
with other groups and together celebrated some victories when corporate
profiteers have been defeated.
But transnational corporations like Nestle, Coca Cola, Pepsi are moving
aggressively to make us all dependent on bottled water while other
corporations like RWE and Suez want to control our municipal
services. The 4
th World Water Forum, being held in
Mexico City this year from March 16-22, is sponsored by these very
corporations and their financial backers, including the IMF and the World
Bank. Activists from around the world and especially from across the
Americas will be there holding alternative forums and demonstrations
proclaiming that water is a human right. We must act now to ensure that
the rights of people and nature are protected not the rights of
corporations.
Now is the time for us to mobilize here in the U.S. in solidarity with
our brothers and sisters around the world. We must make it clear to the
privatizers at the World Water Forum that we dont want transnational
corporations controlling our water.
Click here for the full text of the Spring Forward flier with
ideas of events you can hold in your community. For assistance and
materials, please contact Ruth Caplan, Coordinator of the Defending Water
for Life campaign, 202 244-0561,
rcaplan@igc.org or Nancy Price,
Western Coordinator, 530 758-0726
nancytprice@juno.com
Click here for flier "Working to Expose the Bottled Water
Industry and Keep Water Out of the Bottle.
Click here for Draft Letter to Editor for World Water Day, March 22.
Click here for flier on the movie "Thirst."
Click here for flier on the movie "In the Light of
Reverence."
A number of groups have released statements on water in preparation
for the 4th World Water Forum in Mexico City, March 16-22. Here are
just a few of the most important ones that we would like to bring to your
attention.
1. World Council of Churches Affirms
"Water for Life". Click
here for press statement and information on the World Council of
Churches
2.
Water: Essential for Justice and Peace. An Interfaith
Statement to the 4
th World Water Forum., March 2006
3. California Water Justice Delegation
Statement of Solidarity