Water
WDM campaigned on the issue of water privatisation in poor countries between 2005 and 2008.
Water is a gift from Earth. We need to take care of it and preserve it so the next generation can live. If we don’t, the cost is the people, it is us
Oscar Olivera, water activist, Bolivia, 2006.
Background
Most of us take clean water for granted, but a sixth of the world’s population aren’t so lucky. Over a billion people worldwide cannot reach or afford clean water.
Nearly two million children die every year because they do not have regular, safe water to drink, while the lives of many more people are blighted by the illness and preventable diseases that result from unsafe water and poor sanitation.
WDM lobbied for the UK government to adopt policies that promote access to clean drinking water, rather than waste aid money on failed privatisation. WDM campaigned to limit the spread of coporate control over water resources, and against climate change that threatens water supplies worldwide.
Water campaign successes
- In 2009,...
There is almost certainly consensus on the importance of tackling the global water crisis in order to achieve the MDGs. There is almost certainly consensus that the public sector has not succeeded in improving water and sanitation in many parts of the world. There is almost certainly consensus on the need for major investments in water and sanitation if the situation is to be changed. And there is almost certainly consensus on the need for donor govern- ments to give water and sanitation a high priority.
However, over the past decade, a debate has raged over how to tackle the global water crisis, and in particular, what the role is for the public sector and what the role is for the private sector. During this time, large expect- ations have been placed on the ability of the private sector to deliver clean water to the poor, and significant aid has been used to support the private sector in this endeavour - with little to show for it.
The evidence is clear that the MDGs cannot be met without major public investment, alongside the improvement and expansion of existing public providers, cooperating with any other existing domestic providers. The key questions now are: how can we improve and expand public providers? Who has the experience to help with this? And how...
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