The Latest News...
Defending
Water in Maine at the Common
Ground Fair. Organizers
Denise Penttila and Chris
Buchanan spent three days
discussing rights-based
organizing and water concerns
with Maine fairgoers. Read
more here.
No Keystone XL
Pipeline. Campaign
coordinator Ruth Caplan
testified at a State
Department hearing in DC. Read
more here.
Four out of
five "Human Right to Water"
bills are law! Read
a thank you to Californian
supporters here.
Push for SB244,
part of the California "Human
Right to Water" package. All
four bills have passed the
legislature, but Governor
Brown is being pressured to
veto SB244, which would
require decent water services
for low-income communities.
Californians, call and demand
this bill be signed. Read more
here.
Video from
Madison's Democracy Convention.
Links to video
from panel discussions on
water as a human right,
debunking carbon markets, and
more, featuring Defending
Water for Life coordinator
Ruth Caplan and allied water
justice activists. Alliance
for Democracy organized the
Earth Democracy conference at
the convention. Links here.
Maine Defending
Water for Life campaign supports
Mother Earth Water Walk. Organizer
Chris Buchannan reports on his
experience with the Maine leg
of the Eastern Directions
water walk, part of the annual
Mother Earth Water Walk
organized by the Anishinawbe
Grandmothers. Read more here.
Our statement
for World Water Day, March 22. We
commend those working to
establish access to water and
sanitation as a human right,
and warn that commodification
of water is incompatible with
water justice. Read more here.
Water in
Washington State: Citizens
organizing to have a say in
Anacortes and protect the Skagit
River
On Sept. 13, 2010, the
people of Anacortes, Wash.,
opened their Sunday paper to
read the headline, “Anacortes
water, bottled?” The next
evening, the City of Anacortes,
Wash., approved selling five
million gallons of municipal
water from the Skagit River for
thirty years to Tethys
Enterprises of Everett, Wash.
Read more here.
New Hampshire
bill enables community
protection for groundwater
Thanks to the diligent work of
Bill McCann, AfD's New Hampshire
organizer for the Defending Water
for Life Campaign, New Hampshire
now has a state law that enables
towns to pass local ordinances to
protect groundwater. Read
more!
Read Defending Water for Life posts
on the AfD blog
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Water
is
about life itself.
But for giant corporations like
Vivendi, Suez,
Perrier/Nestlé and
Bechtel, water is about profits.
Around the world, local
communities are fighting the
devastating impacts of
corporations and entrepreneurs
coming into communities to make
a profit. It is the "Blue Gold"
rush.
The Blue Gold seekers treat
water as a commodity rather than
a fundamental human right which
should be protected as a public
trust. The threat comes in three
forms:
·
Municipal
water/sewer systems.
Here in the United States
communities have fought to keep
municipal water under public
control in Lawrence MA, Stockton
CA, New Orleans LA, Indianapolis
IN and many other communities.
Privatization is touted as a way
to control costs in times of
tight city budgets, but it leads
to higher rates, poorer service,
and the loss of good-paying
jobs. Privatization is a global
problem, too. In South Africa,
communities are fighting the
installation of pre-paid water
meters.
·
Bottled
Water. In other
communities, the fight is
against corporate take-over of
local springs and over-pumping
of groundwater or municipal
water in order to keep fueling
the demand for bottled water.
Soft-drink companies have sold
the public on single-use plastic
bottles on the premise that
municipal water is of poor
quality, but consumers are
catching on, and beginning to
refuse to pay to drink a
beverage than costs up to 1000
times more than it does from the
tap. But corporations will fight
for the profits they used to
count on when they paid little
if nothing for the water they
pump from Mother Nature.
·
Bulk
water. High-flying
entrepreneurs have proposed
withdrawing water from aquifers
and wild rivers so they can
profit by transporting it to
water-hungry cities. The
Alliance for Democracy is
working with communities and
linking with other organizations
to stop these corporate
takeovers.
Campaign Coordinators:
National and East
Coast
|
Ruth Caplan
Washington, DC
202-244-0561
rcaplan [at] igc [dot] org |
West Coast
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Nancy Price
nancytprice39 [at] gmail
[dot] com
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State Websites:
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