International development organisation WaterAid today launched a damning new report to mark the ten year anniversary of the signing of the UN Millennium Declaration. The report comes just two weeks before world leaders will meet again at the UN to review the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that were set out in 2000 to halve the proportion of people living in extreme poverty. At current rates of progress, the 2015 target to halve the proportion of people living without sanitation will not be met globally until 2049; and in Sub-Saharan Africa not until the 23rd century, some 200 years late.

The European Parliament has published a new study that evaluates the comparative advantages of public-private partnerships (PPPs) and public-public partnerships (PUPs) in urban water services in Africa. The study concludes that there are notable differences between what PPPs and PuPs can offer.

On 28 July 2010 a widely-expanded 192- member General Assembly adopted a memorable resolution recognising water and sanitation as a basic human right. The resolution proved politically divisive, with 122 countries voting for it and 41 abstaining, but with no negative votes.

Strikers who have been blockading the electricity supply on Wallis Island for the past four months are now claiming they have taken over French company Suez and its subsidiary Electricity of Wallis and Futuna (EWF). The group also claims they have the backing of the King of Wallis, who announced through a spokesman that the public supply contract with EWF had now been terminated.

Public Services International (PSI) requests affiliates to take immediate action on the UN General Assembly resolution titled The Human Right to Water and Sanitation. By declaring water and sanitation a human right, this historic resolution is a critical step to addressing the misery and deaths that result from not having clean water and sanitation. The right to water and sanitation is supported by many PSI unions and allies.

The Italian Supreme Court of Cassation is considering a petition to defend water as a common good and to remove it from the grasp of the private market. "There has been an extraordinary mobilization, more than 1.4 million people have participated,” said Paolo Carsetti of the Forum Italiano dei Movimenti per l’Acqua (Italian Forum of the Movements for Water), a national network that has been collecting signatures for a referendum against the privatisation of Italy’s water system.

The “Water is not for sale” campaign, that runs until 24 July, is an initiative of the Forum Italiano dei Movimenti per l’Acqua, a network of national associations and local committees that is collecting signatures for a referendum against the liberalisation of Italy’s water system.

In 2008, weeks after communities all over the United States celebrated the Fourth of July, the tiny town of Felton, Calif., marked its own holiday: Water Independence Day. With barbecue, music, and dancing, residents marked the end of Felton’s six-year battle to gain control of its water system. The fight, like the festivities, was a grassroots effort. For when a large, private corporation bought Felton’s water utility and immediately raised rates, residents organized, leading what was ultimately a successful campaign for public ownership and inspiring other communities nationwide.

In a major step towards holding Coca-Cola accountable for damages it has caused in India, the state government of Kerala decided on Wednesday to move forward with the formation of a tribunal that will hear and award compensation claims against the Coca-Cola company. The Kerala state cabinet's decision is based on the report and recommendations of a High Power Committee which released a report on March 22, 2010 holding Coca-Cola responsible for causing pollution and water depletion in Plachimada in the state of Kerala in south India.

The Chennai High Court in India imposes Freedom of Information on private water operators, despite the latter’s attempt to protect commercial secrets : "When Constitution had mandated the local bodies to discharge such functions [as water supply] and the State legislature had created a local body with the essential function of water supply and sewage treatment and if that work is entrusted to another body corporate, certainly that body corporate discharges functions akin to a local body. Therefore, every citizen has a right to know the working of such bodies, lest they may be fleeced by such companies which until the BOOT period must explain to the people about their activities. Transparency in their functioning and the right to know by the citizen can never be curtailed on the plea of the petitioner company before the Commission."

“Providing clean, accessible, affordable water is not only the most basic of all government services, but throughout history, control of water has defined the power structure of societies,” Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman, filmmakers who documented the effort of Stockton, California, to fight privatization, wrote in the book Water Consciousness. “If we lose control of our water, what do we as citizens really control through our votes, and what does democracy mean?”

PSI affiliate, the National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, Eastern Zone, has directed its members to stay away from their offices from May 17, if the Federal Government and the management of Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, fail to meet the demands made by the union regarding their welfare. PSI stands in solidarity with the members of NUEE.

AS the government and multilateral institutions vie for increasing public-private partnerships (PPPs) for water sources, civil-society organizations (CSOs) are discouraging the government from doing this to prevent any spike in water tariffs and cause other ill effects on the local economy. CSOs like the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) said that PPPs can be treated as the new term for privatization since PPPs, like privatization, could cause increases in water costs, which significantly affects consumers.

On the occasion of World Water Day, PSI calls on our affiliated unions in the water and sanitation sector to actively participate in the new public-public partnership initiative sponsored by the European Union. The European Commission has released a restricted call for proposals for €40 million in grants for public-public partnerships in water and sanitation services in 72 Africa, Caribbean and Pacific Islands (ACP) countries. These funds will support ‘best practices’ partnerships between countries involving public utilities and interested parties, such as trade unions and non-governmental organisations.

Manthan in India has just published a new publication called "Public-Private Partnerships in Water Sector: Partnerships or Privatisation?". The report looks at various aspects of PPPs and analyses the arguments given in favor of PPPs, the structural issues with PPPs and the larger governance issues associated with PPPs like transparency, people’s participation, access to information and regulation. It also looks for evidence and experiences of PPP projects in various parts of the world. It draws lessons that need to be learnt and cautions that need to be taken on board when advocating PPPs in public services like water and sanitation.

PSI Barbados affiliate, the National Union of public Workers (NUPW), has warned Government that privatising the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) was not even an option. “All the information, all the statistics, all the studies point to the fact that privatisation causes more hardships for workers and is not a solution to any problems", said NUPW general secretary Denis Clarke in an interview to the SUNDAY SUN. Clarke was commenting on Prime Minister David Thompson's announcement during a Press conference on 19 November that the troubled BWA was going to face "some radical changes" because of its unsatisfactory performance.

The Italian government is presenting yet another measure within the space of only a few years, that alters legislation on local public services (water, waste management, public transport) configuring them in a context of final privatization. National unions consider that the text adopted by the government presents the worst possible privatization solution in the area of waste management by altering the present system and allocating resources to the private partners that are imposing this choice.

According to a World Bank report “Economic Impact of Sanitation in Southeast Asia” Indonesia has experienced the highest economic impact from its poor sanitation compared to other Southeast Asian countries. The report stated that more than 94 million of Indonesia’s population does not have adequate sanitary facilities causing, as a result, 121,100 cases of diarrhea, with 50.000 deaths every year. The government of Indonesia intended to increase piped water coverage in 2009 to 66 percent in cities and 30 percent in villages. As for sanitation, the government had an ambitious plan that the country would have private sanitation facilities for all by the end of 2009. Based on data gathered by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), we can conclude that the government has failed to achieve its target.

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), a not-for-profit organisation, has developed solid guidelines which companies should use in drafting their annual reports. Company annual reports are being increasingly scrutinised by a wide range of actors to help ensure that companies are responsible actors. They can also be used by unions to strengthen the union position on a range of issues – outsourcing, health and safety, training, etc. PSI worked with GRI or more than two years to develop GRI’s Electric Utilities Sector Supplement. We urge you to recommend this supplement to management and to examine especially the social indicators to ensure that workers' views are considered in the reporting.

Our friends in Colombia have collected over 2 million signatures from their fellow citizens in support of a constitutional amendment supporting the fundamental human right to water. Ten days ago the Colombian House of Representatives pushed forward a law which directly contradicts the water referendum and accelerates water privatisation in Colombia. We need to deliver a strong statement to the Colombian government that the world is watching these developments and standing in solidarity with our Colombian brothers and sisters. We need your support!

22 March is World Water Day, a day to celebrate this marvel of nature that sustains all life on earth. However, World Water Day cannot be a celebration as long as lack of water or contaminated water kills thousands of people every day. People have a right to water in sufficient quantities to ensure their lives and to protect their dignity. Governments have responsibilities to ensure this right. Water is a fundamental human right.

PSI has long advocated public-public partnerships between public water utilities and unions/NGOs. As a result, the concept of water operator partnerships (WOPs) has now entered into the language of the international water family. How can we ensure that unions continue to create the conditions for public-public partnerships, especially when faced with private water companies and their lobbying groups whose profit motive is extremely powerful?

A union delegation travelled to Huancayo, Peru, where they achieved a public-public partnership between water utilities.

As more and more communities insist on returning water and wastewater services to public management through remunicipalisation, water multinationals are forced to pull out of services in Latin America, the United States, Africa and Europe. Increased tariffs and a failure to deliver promised improvements have left water multinationals facing increasing opposition.

The campaign message "Women and trade unions call for safe, affordable and efficient water for all" is accompanied by a focus for 2008 on climate change and sustainable development. Please inform us of any activities you are organising for this campaign, which runs from 8 to 22 March 2008.

STOCKTON - A city panel Thursday endorsed a plan for the transfer of Stockton's water and sewer utilities from private to municipal control, promising in the transition's oversight to involve activists who sued the city to undo its privatization deal.

For the second consecutive year, a French consumer group has published research that shows a huge gap in the cost of private and public water.

Energy and Water Unions from Latin America met in Sao Paulo, Brazil, 28-30 October and agreed on a list of priority actions for the region.

On August 10, Seoul Metropolitan City government announced its plan to turn Seoul Metropolitan City Waterworks into a public corporation by 2012, as well as consign 19 other administrative and public services to private management.

PSI has called on unions and management to work together to help developing countries increase access to safe drinking water and sanitation.