Water and sanitation

Social movements have been successful in beating back the tide of water privatization. With global temperatures rising, unions in the energy sector can learn from these struggles.

The Water is a Human Right campaign aims to collect 1 million signatures in support of "Water is a public good, not a commodity".

The European Commission is deliberately promoting privatization of water services as one of the conditions being imposed as part of bailouts, it acknowledges in a letter to civil society groups.

Major protests against austerity measures are taking place in many European countries.We give you the list of upcoming events:

Public sector workers will lose more than £8.5 billion a year through cuts to their pensions. - A massive transfer of wealth away from public servants, says trade union leaders.

Privatisation, contracting out and outsourcing have been the dominant trends in public services. Now there is increasing evidence of trends in the opposite direction, according to a report from EPSU.

Nigeria is privatising the public power holding company, and employees were forced at gunpoint to listen to speeches from the Minister of Power and the Minister of Labour. "Is Nigeria still a military dictatorship?" asks PSI in a letter to President Goodluck Jonathan.

More efforts and stronger commitment for water as a human right is needed, says "water justice activists".

On 20th July, the Italian Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional Article 4 of the Decree Law 138 of August 13, 2011, by which, the Berlusconi government re-introduced the privatisation of local public services. At that time, the government had ignored the results of the referendum of 12 and 13 June 2011 in which Italians had rejected privatisation. The ruling also blocks all subsequent amendments, including those of the Monti government.