Water and sanitation

The 6th World Water Forum is held under the slogan "It’s time for solutions and commitments”. Yet the current draft Ministerial Declaration falls short of commitments on the right to safe drinking water and sanitation that virtually all United Nations Member States have already made. This is unacceptable.

Bottled water is coming under attack on college campuses. More than 90 schools, among them Brown University and Harvard University are banning the sale or restricting the use of plastic water bottles, unnerving the $22 billion retail packaged-water industry in the U.S. The University of Vermont is the latest to join the movement, announcing in January it would stop sales early next year.

Following a decision by the University of Alberta to grant an honorary agree to Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, former executive direction and current chairman of Nestlé, a group of over seventy civil society organisations, including PSI, has sent a letter of protest to the University.

On 1 April the first European Citizens’ Initiative on water will be launched by a Citizens Committee fully supported by the European Federation of Public Service Unions. In all European countries our affiliated unions with its civil society allies are preparing for a campaign to promote implementation of the human right to water and sanitation.

The European Commission has opened formal antitrust proceedings to investigate whether the French companies SAUR, Suez Environnement/Lyonnaise des Eaux and Veolia, together with their trade association Fédération Professionnelle des Entreprises de l'Eau ("FP2E"), have coordinated their behaviour on French water and waste water markets, in breach of EU antitrust rules. The opening of proceedings means that the Commission will treat the case as a matter of priority. It does not prejudge the outcome of the investigation.

Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA) fights for $4 million in back pay for workers.

Asian Development Bank’s new plan insists on the private sector answer to water woes.

The Dutch Parliament voted for an amendment by the Socialist Party to stop the contribution to the PPIAF, a fairly modest 1.2 million euros, but symbolically important.