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Battle lines being drawn around World Water Forum
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Added by
apesphere on 16 Mar 2009
From: www.ipsnews.net
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| Image courtesy blair_25 via Flickr |
As the fifth World Water Forum kicks off in Istanbul, discussions are being shadowed by an alternative People's Water Forum.
Although the WWF is a multi-stakeholder event, water activists divine a distinctly corporate agenda in the event that is held every three years.
According to the IPS report:
"The Forum maintains it has an open mind. Its programme declares that "the Forum is not a place for private firms to exploit water as a commodity but, to the contrary, to discuss and find common solutions that may be acceptable to all parties and be of benefit for all." But it also offers a venue "perfectly placed to facilitate new business opportunities...as well as providing access to sizeable potential new customers."
The Forum stands accused of having a particular agenda. "The Forum lacks democratic legitimacy and should be replaced by a UN process," Olivier Hoedeman of the Amsterdam-based NGO Corporate Europe Observatory told IPS in a telephone interview. "The World Water Council, which controls the Forum process, is simply a private think-tank unaccountable to anyone but itself. It has a history of close ties to private water multinationals and of promoting the neo-liberal agenda for the water sector." "
Although the WWF is a multi-stakeholder event, water activists divine a distinctly corporate agenda in the event that is held every three years.
According to the IPS report:
"The Forum maintains it has an open mind. Its programme declares that "the Forum is not a place for private firms to exploit water as a commodity but, to the contrary, to discuss and find common solutions that may be acceptable to all parties and be of benefit for all." But it also offers a venue "perfectly placed to facilitate new business opportunities...as well as providing access to sizeable potential new customers."
The Forum stands accused of having a particular agenda. "The Forum lacks democratic legitimacy and should be replaced by a UN process," Olivier Hoedeman of the Amsterdam-based NGO Corporate Europe Observatory told IPS in a telephone interview. "The World Water Council, which controls the Forum process, is simply a private think-tank unaccountable to anyone but itself. It has a history of close ties to private water multinationals and of promoting the neo-liberal agenda for the water sector." "
Andrew Newton is the author of The Handbook of Compliance: Making Ethics Work in Financial Services
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