22 March is World Water Day

PSI is proposing that unions participate in a number of specific actions, from now until 22 March, and over the next year.  These activities are designed to strengthen public services. 

Although water privatisation has been slowed, it has not stopped.  Our best defense against a renewed privatisation agenda is to create strong public services.  PSI has been planting this idea for the past couple of years, and we think that it is coming closer to fruition. 

Therefore, we ask unions to take a couple of initiatives from now until World Water Day. 

1. We ask that shop stewards in each and every public water and sanitation utility present the attached note to their managers for endorsement.  This will create pressure on the manager to recognise the importance of public services, as well as create an awareness of the global context.
2. We ask all unions to send letters to their national governments – this should include prime ministers or presidents, finance ministers, and water or environment ministers.  The purpose is to further create pressure for appropriate national policies and to place the unions as a key player in this sector, at national and global levels. 

Discussion points for World Water Day Briefings with the Media – Events at or around the World Water Forum

Privatisation

This policy is not working and the world is recognising this.   The multinational corporations have not fulfilled the promise of delivering water, especially to the poor.   They are withdrawing.  But we can assume a renewed focus on national and local private operators, so will need to keep a very close watch on developments. 

The Minister of Water from Bolivia announced their intention to withdraw from GATS commitments made by the previous government, and called on the WTO to end all negotiations involving drinking water within the GATS, and withdrawal from water from the 155 sectors which are covered by the WTO.

A new report from PSIRU, published by PSI and the World Development Movement, Pipe Dreams, The failure of the private sector to invest in water services in developing countries, is available on the PSI website.  It lays out clearly the failure of privatisation to deliver water to those unserved. 

World Bank
The World Bank admitted the failure of its privatisation policies and said that 20 years of development work have been lost because of it.  Indicated that it will move towards supporting public utilities, including training staff, supporting management improvement, and looking at better public, local finance mechanisms. 

Youth Delegation
A youth delegation presented to the ministerial plenary, and amongst others, asked for no more privatisation. 

Pro-Public and Local Policies

UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board
The Board provided seven recommendations, the first being Water Operators Partnerships – WOPs.  It calls for creating mechanisms such that local utilities can systematically help each other.  The financial organisations need to help with mechanisms that public local operators need – given that public utilities serve 90% of those served, their needs must be the most central. 

We have not won the battle to have workers and their unions recognised as important stakeholders in the improvement of public utilities.  As long as major organisations view workers as a cost of production to be reduced to the lowest possible level, they will not likely engage in successful reform. 

Public-public partnerships
One key element in the pro-public strategy is the concept of public-public partnerships.  It is a very simple concept, whereby a strong public utility help a weaker one.  The complications come in the implementation.  But the complications can be resolved.  What is important now is to anchor the concept of public-public partnerships as the only viable solution (and as opposed to the public-private partnerships that are a disguise for privatisation). 

We hope that your union can take these initiatives and that you can :

1. Keep track of all of the supportive public utilities, as we will likely seek to enter their names into a global database.
2. Discuss with your national governments the appropriate policy measures that are needed. 

We will want you to report your activities and any results to david.boys@world-psi.org

Click here to see what PSI's doing at the World Water Forum.

Please download the proposal for the letter to the Governments and the utilites.  You can also download the three different versions of the PSI World Water Day logo.

You can also read about the World Water Day and find the link to EPSU's World Water Day website.

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