water woes
Water is becoming dirtier, scarcer and
costlier for people in many parts of the
world. More than one billion people do not
have access to clean drinking water, and
1.8 million people die each year due to
inadequate hygiene, sanitation and water
supply.
International financial institutions,
trade treaties and multinational water
corporations promote the privatization of
water services, thus decreasing the access
of poor people, and particularly women, to
water. Pollution, industrialized
agriculture and mining are also part of the
problem, as are big dams.
The World Bank, notorious for funding
mega-dams which displace people and
contribute to local poverty, is for example
financing yet another destructive project
in the Mekong Valley which will affect the
livelihoods of more than 100,000 farmers (
see page 26
).
Friends of the Earth believes that water
is a human right, is essential to
livelihoods, and should not be treated as
an economic good. We are campaigning for
water justice by promoting collective water
management systems, urging water reduction
and reuse, and restoring rivers and
wetlands to more natural states. Friends of
the Earth Middle East, for example, is
harvesting rainwater in order to promote
water conservation and recycling
