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22 march 2001
world water day: stop the
gats attack on water
(Brussels-Berlin) When environment
ministers will meet today in Berlin at a
trade and sustainable development meeting
[1], groups around the world will call on
them to recognise access to water as a right
for all on World Water Day. This call comes
when talks on service liberalisation in the
World Trade Organisation (WTO) are in full
swing and water is discussed as a new issue
of trade and investment liberalisation to
fall under strict WTO disciplines and
rules.
Water is becoming increasingly scarce in
many regions of the world and millions of
people do not have access to safe drinking
water. These problems will be exacerbated as
water supply rapidly becomes privatised with
large multinational water companies
advocating the commodification of public
water supplies, including of drinking water.
Estimates place the world-wide water and
wastewater business at between USS$ 300 and $
800 billion annually (World Bank).
The EU and business lobby groups are
currently proposing collection and
distribution of water services as part of
General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)
negotiations in the WTO. This is raising
serious concerns among non-governmental
organisations from all over the world. Market
access commitments could limit the right of
governments to restrict quantities of water
collected from lakes, rivers and ground
waters sources Friends of the Earth warned
today.
Alexandra Wandel, trade co-ordinatior of
Friends of the Earth Europe: ‘Equitable and
fair access to drinking water is a basic
human right. It is inappropriate and
unacceptable for social rights and basic
needs to be constrained by WTO rules. Thus
GATS must not apply to issues critical to
human or planetary welfare, such as water.
Governments need to reject the EU proposal of
liberalisation of public water supplies. The
public sector and governments need to ensure
the proper allocation of water within
countries and across borders.’
NGOs from around the world have launched a
statement this week, called ‘Stop the GATS
Attack’[2]. Signed by more than 200 groups
from over 40 countries they call for a
moratorium to the new GATS negotiations. They
want GATS to be the subject of broad public
debate with a thorough and independent
assessment of economic, social and
environmental impacts.
Friends of the Earth groups from Latvia to
Costa Rica will today launch activities to
highlight their work on water issues.
Friends of the Earth Costa Rica will
represent the National Federation of
Environmentalist Groups to officials at a
public debate held in the Costa Rican
Parliament. The group‘s presentation will lay
emphasis on the costs of increasing
privatization of water, the need to reverse
this trend and ensure access and control of
water for local communities in Costa Rica
[3].
Gabriel Rivas-Ducca, campaigner at Friends
of the Earth Costa Rica: “We are strongly
critical of the appropriation of water by
private forces in Costa Rica. Water resources
are under attack from different sides and
forces: environmental pollution and economic
power. Uncontrolled expansion of dams,
conflicts between local communities and
transnational hotel chains in our dry
tropical areas and the threat of oil
exploration in front of our Caribbean Coast
all threaten the rights and the environment
of Costa Ricans.”
For further information:
Alexandra Wandel, Friends of the Earth
Europe Trade Co-ordinator:
00 49 172 7483953 (mob in Germany)
Daniel Mittler, BUND (Friends of the Earth
Germany),
International Co-ordinator : 00 49 30 275 86
468
Howard Mollett, Friends of the Earth
Europe,
Press & Information: 0032 2 542 01
89
Note for editors:
[1] The ministerial meeting on
environment, sustainable development and
trade is hosted by the United Nations
Environment Programme and the German Federal
Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation
and Nuclear Safety (BMU). Main objectives of
the Ministerial Meeting are to discuss areas
of mutual concern in the environment,
development and trade debate and to enhance
awareness on trade and environment linkages
and implications for sustainable
development.
[2] The joint NGO GATS statement can be
found on the web at
www.polarisinstitute.org
www.bund.net/aktuell (statement in
german)
[3] FoE Costa Rica will use as a propose
framework, the ten basic principles for
protecting water as proposed by the
International Forum on Globalization:
www.ifg.org
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