No Right to Water After All

Throughout this week's Fourth World Water Forum in Mexico, representatives of the World Water Council--the key organization behind the forum--made public pronouncements suggesting that they supported the notion that the right to water is a fundamental human right. For some attending the forum, these pronouncements suggested that the forum's final declaration might be amended to contain at least a "watered down" reference to the right to water.

As always, talk is cheap. The final declaration to be signed today in Mexico City will, once again, leave out any reference to the right to water. In fact, the declaration, which was already "cooked" before the forum opened, adds very little to the proclamation made at the end of the WWF III in Kyoto in 2003. The statement accords to governments a key role in extending water services to the one-third of humanity that does not have access to drinking water, but it says little about how this is to be achieved. It is also strangely silent on the issue of whether or not water should be included in negotations for a General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).

For water activists, the inclusion of water in this agreement will complete the process of turning water into one more commodity to be bought and sold like sneakers or newspapers. Once water becomes a commodity in that way, sooner or later only those who can pay for it will have access to it.

As host of the meeting and chair of the discussion of the declaration, the government of Mexico declined to permit any discussion of proposed amendments to the final document. This, in a country facing a serious water crisis, and in a city where the idea of "potable water" is almost an oxymoron. The only water served at the World Water Forum was bottled water provided by forum sponsor, Coca Cola, under the brand name, "Cielo" (sky). The Cielo bottles proudly proclaimed that not only was the water purified and iodized, but it was also treated with ultraviolet rays to ensure purity. I, for one, prefer my water without the ultraviolet radiation.

Readers of Spanish can see a fine story on the final declaration in the Mexican daily, La Jornada.

Unhappy with the declaration, Bolivia, Cuba, Spain, Uruguay, and Venezuela have presented a parallel statement affirming the human right to water and demanding that water be removed from the GATS negotiations. This statement will appear as an annex to the official statement, signed by at least those five countries. While all five countries will apparently sign the official declaration, the inclusion of the parallel statement is an important acknowledgement of the issues raised by activists present at the forum.