Throughout the world, solutions to some of the greatest challenges of the day are either nascent or fully thriving. Organized people's movements - sometimes with help from supportive government - are changing the structures which cause violence, poverty, inequality, and environmental destruction.

Claiming & Protecting Water

Water Wheel A surge of people power in parts of the world, especially Latin America, is beginning to ensure that water is protected as part of the global commons, making it free or cheap, accessible, clean, and democratically managed. The last few years have seen popular pressure win new legal precedents, constitutional guarantees, and types of management.

Claiming & Protecting Water

Changing the Flow

This 56 page booklet contains a dozen interviews of cutting-edge water warriors from the region, and documentation and analysis of the many exciting ways in which citizens' movements are safeguarding their waters.

Nestle Chairman says water isn’t a human right. Tell him he’s wrong

Submitted by admin on Tue, 04/23/2013 - 13:52

Cross-posted from Union Solidarity International

In a candid interview for the documentary We Feed the World, Nestle Chairman Peter Brabeck makes the astonishing claim that water isn’t a human right. He attacks the idea that nature is good, and says it is a great achievement that humans are now able to resist nature’s dominance. He attacks organic agriculture and says genetic modification is better.

March for Rights, Respect, and Fair Food

Submitted by admin on Wed, 03/06/2013 - 14:56

Cross-posted from Coalition of Immokalee Workers

Days Two and Three:

Back-to-back 15 mile days leave marchers' bodies sore, and spirits soaring!

Shutting the Spigot on Private Water: The Case for the World Bank to Divest

Submitted by admin on Tue, 11/20/2012 - 08:41

Shutting the spigot on private water corporate accountability international Check out this groundbreaking report from Corporate Accountability International!

"Shutting the Spigot on Private Water" is a landmark report that documents how the World Bank is driving global water privatization at a chilling human cost. With original financial analysis and powerful case studies, it demonstrates how the World Bank must divest from private water projects to align its actions with its stated mission of alleviating poverty and supporting sustainable development.

Meet the 13-Year-Old Girl Taking on Bottled Water

Submitted by admin on Mon, 09/03/2012 - 17:14

Cross-posted from the Huffington Post.

By Maude Barlow
Posted: 08/31/2012

In the last year, municipalities across Ontario and the rest of the country have begun taking a much-needed stand to protect local water sources. Since World Water Day in 2011, nine municipalities across Canada have become Blue Communities with many well on their way.

Blue Communities are municipalities that adopt a water commons framework by: banning the sale of bottled water in public facilities and at municipal events, recognizing water as a human right, and promoting publicly financed, owned and operated water and waste-water services.

Hands into Water: New Documentary distributed by the Platform for Public and Community Partnerships of The Americas

Submitted by admin on Tue, 08/21/2012 - 14:18

Check out this documentary, recently announced by our friends at the Platform for Public and Community Partnerships of The Americas!

HANDS INTO WATER is the result of collective effort and the self-determination of a number of people who have worked together to provide a solution to the problem of water and sanitation in the south of Cochabamba, Bolivia. In this documentary, two water committees talk about their history, their culture and their lived reality, focusing on how they deal with the daily struggle for water and their search for concrete solutions that do not rely on the state or any authoritarian organization.

Brazil: Belo Monte dam stopped

Submitted by admin on Tue, 08/21/2012 - 13:59

Cross-posted from Salva la Selva.

16/08/2012

"It's a historic victory for the country and people of the river, "said Antonia Melo, spokesperson for the motion Xingu Forever Living.

Judge Souza Prudente ordered on Tuesday 1 August 4 halting the construction of the Belo Monte dam at the request of the state of Pará. The reason is that the construction company Northern Energy did not consult the project with affected indigenous groups before starting the work, and informed them sufficiently about the consequences. This contradicts both the Brazilian law and the rights of minorities, recognized internationally. If, despite the judge's order continuing the work, to pay fines of 200,000 euros per day.

"Baseball in the Time of Cholera" Film Now Available Online!

Submitted by admin on Tue, 07/17/2012 - 08:39

Check out this announcement from RYOT Fims and see their campaign here: www.undeny.org!

Baseball in The Time of Cholera is a powerful insight into the tragedy and scandal of Haiti's Cholera epidemic through the eyes of a young baseball player

If a foreign military dumped their raw sewage into the Mississippi river and it caused the deaths of over 7000 Americans would we remain silent?

That very scenario is playing out in Haiti right now! UN peacekeeping forces from Nepal dumped their sewage into Haiti's largest river and the ensuing cholera outbreak has resulted in over 500,000 Haitians infected and over 7000 deaths (and counting).

“Waiting for Helicopters”? Cholera, Prejudice, and the Right to Water in Haiti (Part II)

Submitted by admin on Fri, 06/29/2012 - 07:34

by Deepa Panchang
June 29, 2012

“Where you stand,” goes an old Haitian proverb, “depends on where you sit.” This article, the second in a series, will examine aid workers’ stereotypes and prejudices about residents of displacement camps in post-earthquake Haiti, stemming from acute disconnect between NGOs and the people they are there to work with. We explore how these misperceptions have perpetuated deliberate decisions to deny water and sanitation services to desperate survivors.

Withholding Water: Cholera, Prejudice, and the Right to Water in Haiti -- Part I

Submitted by admin on Thu, 05/31/2012 - 08:09

By Deepa Panchang
May 31, 2012

“Cholera is something they sent,” says graffiti on Port-au-Prince walls, “to finish killing off the rest of us.”

Scientists have shown that the cholera pathogen came to Haiti with foreign UN troops who carried the bacteria in their bodies, and whose military base was dumping its sewage into a nearby river. The imported disease has claimed more than 7,000 lives and continues to ravage communities across Haiti. Despite billions in post-earthquake aid dollars and hundreds of humanitarian NGOs, the country still faces a dearth of water and sanitation services, further fueling the epidemic. Nearly half a million internally displaced people (IDPs) still live since the 2010 earthquake in makeshift camps under tarps, torn tents, and pieces of old fabric and cardboard, an ideal environment for cholera. The situation raises serious questions about the humanitarian mechanism and its priorities. Why do so many people still lack the most basic of services? What factors are guiding humanitarian agencies’ decisions to provide or withhold them?