Page 2 sur 2
WATER, A RIGHT TO LIFE
Declaration of the 4th P7 Summit of the World's Seven Poorest Countries
The problem : an intolerable present
Out of a global population of six billion people, 1.4 billion do not have access to potable water (around 1.7 billion, according to the World Health Organization). World Water Vision (The Hague, March 2000) says that more than three billion people lack access to sanitary services.
The deterioration of water resources is becoming more serious and generalized The Great Lakes region in North America is severely polluted and will be so for one or two generations to come. The pollution of rivers in India has become catastrophic. Similar problems are found in the rivers of Slovakia, Poland and western Russia. The Colorado in the south-western US no longer reaches the sea. In northern China, over an area consisting of millions of hectares, the groundwater level is declining by about one meter per year. Irrigation is the main culprit. Water contaminated by arsenic in Bangladesh and in Bengal could threaten the lives of more than 50 million people.
In the meantime, the profits of Vivendi and Suez-Lyonnaise des Eaux (respectively the largest and second-largest companies specialized in water distribution and waste water treatment) have continued to grow during the 1990s. Big multinationals selling bottled mineral water, such as Nestle-Perrier and Danone, are also doing well. Water has, in fact, become a very profitable business. The degradation of water resources makes them more rare, and thus increases the value of those that have been preserved.
Disastrous uses of water
Thirsty, inefficient and wasteful industrial farming methods.
In both Northern and Southern countries growing non sustainable demand and use by industry.
Huge dams : powefull follies.
Nonsustainable and unjust use of water generates conflicts and water wars threatens peace and cooperation.
Worrying consequences for sustainable development
The intolerable water situation is symptomatic of the deplorable (and unacceptable) management of all of the Earth's natural resources, among them : the scandalously rapid deforestation of the planet; expanding desertification; biological diversity is being sacrificed; systems of energy use (and the corresponding transport systems), based on petrol and nuclear energy, which are changing too slowly in developed countries and rapidly being introduced in Southern countries; the deterioration of farmland.
HOWEVER...
ACCESS TO WATER IS A HUMAN, INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE RIGHT
According to the final declaration of the first big United Nations conference on water resources, which was held at Mar del Plata, Argentina, in 1977: "Everyone has the right to access to drinking water in quantities and of quality equal to their basic needs".
According to paragraph 18.47 of Agenda 21, which was approved in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and signed by the heads of state and prime ministers from 130 countries: "All peoples, whatever their stage of development and their social and economic conditions, have the right to access to drinking water in quantities and of quality equal to their basic needs".
According to numerous resolutions of the UN Human Rights Committee and the world conferences of the FAO, the WHO, and UNESCO.
On many occasions, it has been stated that access to water is a fundamental part of the right to food, the right to health, the right to housing.
Proposals made at The Hague in march 2000 violate the fundamental water rights of people.
Ministers representing 118 countries meeting in The Hague for the 2nd World Water Forum signed a ministerial declaration in which they refused to consider access to water as a human right.
Speaking in unison, ministers from the 118 countries, the heads of multinationals such as Vivendi, Suez-Lyonnaise des Eaux, Nestle, Thames Water, Nuon, and Biwater, experts, bureaucrats, scientists from the World Water Council, the Global Water Partnership, the World Water Commission for the 21st Century, and the representatives of the World Bank told us that WATER as BLUE GOLD will generate the war in the 21st century.
According to the political water agenda defined at The Hague by the alliance between politicians, leaders of private multinational water companies, and the international techno-scientific-bureaucratic elite, the solution to the world's water problems should be dealt with via the market economy. This model is proposed by the World Bank and a detailed plan was drafted by the Global Water Partnership, which is linked to the World Bank and supported by multinational water companies.
We reject the solutions proposed by the World Water Forum in The Hague Water should not be treated as an economic commodity. Water rights can not be guranteed through management by a private global water industry.
The logic underlying these proposals is the development of a highly profitable private global water industry. In this context, the private Swiss bank Pictet, which in January 2000 launched an international water fund comprising stocks from 80 companies specialising in water. If other financial institutions follow the example of the Banque Pictet, we will see water come under the control of financial markets that will fix a "world price for water" (sic!)... This scenario, the treatment of water as a kind of "petroleum" to be bought and sold, is already under way – and it is unacceptable.
The solutions proposed by the P7
FOR A POLICY CHANGE BASED ON FOUR FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
FIRST PRINCIPLE
Water is the basis of life.
It is the basis of integrity of ecosystems and sustenance of all species, including humans.
Access to water, a non-substitutable source of life, is an individual, collective and fundamental human right and its conservation is fundamental collective human responsibility. All living beings have a right to water. As water is part of humanity's common heritage.
Water is more than an economic commodity.
Water is not merchandise.
Treating water as a kind of "petroleum" is unacceptable. Water is a commons and the cultures that protect it as commons need to be protected rejuvenated and reinvented. Ensuring access to water for all and promoting its sustainable use are collective responsibilities, in the interest of all people and species of the planet, and with a view to future generations.
SECOND PRINCIPLE
Water quality and the management of water services (distribution and wastewater treatment) must remain under control or brought once again into the community and public domain.
Scientific, technical, financial and managerial knowledge accumulated throughout history is part of the common heritage of a country and of the international community.
Especially in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe, it is urgent to establish plans (at local continental, inter-regional and basin levels) to promote the development of water services and put into place democratic means of action at the different levels. In addition, cooperative and mutualistic companies (local, regional, national, or continental) must be created to ensure that water services are provided on an appropriate, competent, and efficient economic and financial basis.
Distribution and remediation services come at a cost. The principle of free access to a necessary minimum of clean water means that the associated distribution and purification costs must be assumed by the community. Water is therefore never free even if the prices paid by the users (domestic consumers, farmers or industry) are very low. The low prices express the will of public authorities to respect the water right of its citizen.
AT WHAT PRICE ?
The principle of "full cost recovery" or the principle of the user-payer is not a good criteria. It fails to take into consideration non-monetary and social costs, as well as environmental costs. This recipe hides the huge subsidies provided to private corporations in terms of aid and public financing. Public funds should only be used for building public assets and public delivery systems.
THIRD PRINCIPLE
Water policy requires a high degree of democracy at local, national, continental and world levels. By definition, water can only be managed democraticaly in a decentralised manner.
Water is a matter of citizenship and democracy
The best managers of water are citizens and local communities. Solutions based on capital intensive and mega technologies – when they are not downright counter-productive, as in the case of large dams and large-scale desalinisation – can never be a substitute for participatory democracy.
The mechanisms of representative democracy needs to support participatory democracy. This must be reinforced by the creation of local parliamentary assemblies for large basins and river communities, as well as by the establishment of the World Water Parliament mentioned above. A wide field is now open to participatory democracy at the level of villages, cities, basins, and regions. Clear regulatory frameworks at the international level would aid in the formation of a durable and responsible world water policy, while at the same time making it more visible to the world community. The parliamentary bodies that have been proposed would be called to play a fundamental role in the construction of a world right to water.
We also believe that it is urgent and indispensable to recognise local and traditional practices. Much of the heritage of knowledge and community practices that encourage solidarity has already been squandered, and it runs the risk of being totally destroyed in the years to come.
FOURTH PRINCIPLE
Water should contribute to solidarity between communities, countries, societies, generations, and the sexes.
The fact that freshwater is unequally distributed around the Earth, and that wealth is unequally distributed among people and countries, does not necessarily mean that unequal access to water should exist.
Inequality in the distribution of resources and wealth does not mean that water-rich populations and wealthy people can do as they please with water, even selling or buying it abroad for maximum profit or enjoyment. Water cannot be exported according to market logic.
Undemocratic control over water leads to wars and conflicts. Water democracy will create conditions of peace.
OPERATIONAL PROPOSALS
These concern the following fields of action:
- North/South and South/North, South/South cooperation, which needs to be thoroughly revised to resist – and promote alternatives to – the market driven globalisation which is leading to enhenced unequal redistribution and production of wealth and comodification of natural resources.
- Strongly encouraging the active participation of democratic forces from northern and southern countries in those international bodies and conferences that are defining the principles, operating frameworks and practical mechanisms of policies and actions that have an impact on water policy.
- The adoption by industrialised northern countries, and especially the European Union, of policies defending peoples fundamental water rights and promoting universal access to water and the democratic and environmentally sound management of the world's water resources.
A REINFORCING/RENEWING NORTH-SOUTH COOPERATION
This cooperation was weakened during the 1990s. In addition, many areas of the world fell prey to local and regional problems, making it difficult for the global community (the United Nations in particular) to implement policies in favour of social and economic development and conflict resolution.
The P7 Summit calls for the protection – or restoration – of water resources and ecosystems within the framework of a public policy of water sharing and management at local, national and the international and continental levels. This would involve :
- multiplying and reinforcing the ability of local and regional democratic bodies to participate in both basin-by-basin and international management. Contracts for basin management should become one of the ways populations ensure that water is managed for the common good;
- strengthening local community initiatives for which conservation, and sustainable water use promoting the training of local populations (not just technicians and experts) so they can evaluate means, results, and problems, and formulate alternatives that fulfil the goal of the "universal right to water and environmentally sound resource management".
The P7 calls for the development of action plans (Water for the cities of Africa ; Water for the cities of Asia, etc.) with goals specific to each continent. These action plans would be drawn up for an entire continent or sub-continent. They would encourage three kinds of cooperation : that between the cities and populations of several countries in the continents concerned ; between these cities and the populations of a number of northern cities ; and between the UN bodies that are directly involved (FAO, WHO, UNESCO, UNICEF, UNDP, UNEP).
Efforts to eliminate the "water-hunger" cycle by attacking the current system of agricultural production, in all its variation and diversity, which remains under the domination of multinational agribusiness and large distributors. In the south and in the north, environmentally sound, cooperative farming based primarily on local resources and eco-technologies should be encouraged at the level of regional communities. Irrigation systems – which everyone knows to be a primary cause of water imbalances (mainly through losses due to evaporation) – need to be examined urgently. Furthermore, the trap of "virtual water" – whereby farm products that require large quantities of water are imported, thus reducing the quantity of water needed locally to produce the same products – must be avoided. Developing an agricultural sector that requires less water could still result in farm and food sectors that are increasingly dependent on large agribusinesses operating under the free trade system.
REGAINING THE PEOPLE'S CAPACITY TO DEFINE THE WATER AGENDA FOR LOCAL, NATIONAL AND GLOBAL SYSTEMS
The P7 calls :
- on international umbrella organisations of NGOs that were particularly active in Seattle and Washington and on international networks of parliamentarians;
- to establish a "Support Committee" for the world campaign for the Human Right to Water and give it the task of drafting a report on Chapter 18 of Agenda 21. This report will be presented to the Rio Conference +10 in Bonn in 2002 and to the 3rd World Water Forum in Tokyo the same year;
- on the European Commission to carry out an independent study informed by peoples initiatives on steps to ensure a water democracy.
REINFORCING PARTICIPATION IN THE INTERNATIONAL BODIES AND CONFERENCES THAT DEFINE THE PRINCIPLES, MEANS AND ACTIONS THAT HAVE AN IMPACT ON WATER POLICY
In this area, in addition to the actions already mentioned, the P7 calls on the European Parliament:
- to approve the drafting of a report, on its own initiative, on "global water policy" and on the contribution the European Union can make to achieving water democracy based on fundamental water rights of all peoples;
- to invite all democratic parliamentary forces in Europe to present to the Geneva Conference (Copenhagen + 5) in June 2000 common proposals on the human right to water, which is part of the fight against poverty Asks the P7 countries;
- to create, as of this summit, an "Oversight Group for the Human Right to Water." This group would be responsible for actively participating – both critically and constructively – in the primary continental and international conferences of the United Nations and member organisations that have a direct impact on water policy. The group would systematically and coherently provide alternatives to proposals for privatisation of water and ensure sustainable and equitable water use. .
End of the Declaration
