The World Water Forum: A Dispute Over Life

Throughout the afternoon, the Coalition of Mexican Organizations in Defense of Water (COMDA, in its Spanish initials) and several different environmental groups gathered members of civil society to participate in the peaceful mobilization with the goal of stopping the implementation of policies from the official forum (which is slanted toward the privatization of this liquid), and of seeking out alternative ways to exploit it. The cosmopolitan march, which brought together children, youth, adults and elderly people from diverse socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds, stood out for its success in expressing the real will to demonstrate and bring the people’s critical political discourse into action on the capital’s most exclusive streets. The slogans could be seen and heard not just in the placards that read, “Life is not for sale, and neither is water,” or, “Nature does not privatize water,” but also in the drums of rebellion and the faces of the many organized groups: the “Sección XVIII Zamora” of the Michoacán teachers’ union, the Mazhua Movement, the Council of Communal Farmers and Communities of Guerrero Opposed to the Parota Dam, students from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the Otra Metropolitana Collective (an adherent to the Zapatista “Other Campaign”), the National School of Anthropology and History, the National Polytechnic Institute, many groups of peasant farmers from Veracruz, Oaxaca and Nayarit, and other individuals.

Representatives from the rest of Latin America and the world were present for the entire demonstration with colorful and noisy ways of expressing their rejection of the multinational corporations that seek to appropriate the world’s water. The activists came from Bolivia (including Oscar Olivera, from the Coordinating Committee for the Defense of Water and Life of Cochabamba), Chile, Puerto Rico, Canada, the United States, Chile, Spain and others.

Three Forums and a Tribunal

As the second largest consumer of privately sold bottled water in the world, Mexico is the proud host of the official forum, attended by about 320 companies from 27 countries, and where the delegations and officials from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Inter-American Development Bank will hold meetings with the governments of the six continents. Nevertheless, two parallel forums were also held: the Alternative Water Forum and the “Mirror of Water” alternative forum — both of these being initiatives with cultural and political programs that privilege speaking and listening, as well as debate with specialists in artistic dynamics. The alternative forums that hope to influence people’s consciousness on the vital problem of water will run until March 21.

For its part, the Latin American Water Tribunal, which will meet parallel to the fourth World Water Forum as well, is an autonomous and independent hearing on environmental justice. It was created with the goal of supporting a solution to conflicts due to the region’s water systems. At its first session, from March 13–21, a jury was selected. In addition to cases in Mexico, seven more will be examined from Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Panama and one from Central America that involves three countries.

From Mexico, the tribunal will hear the case of the Parota hydroelectric project. This case was presented by the Council of Communal Farmers and Communities mentioned above, and alleges that the project would mean the flooding of 17,300 hectares (42,700 acres) with the construction of a 192-meter (630-foot) retaining wall. At the same time, the tribunal will study the oil spill in the river and coast of Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz — which affected 15,000 inhabitants of the town of Nanchital, for which they sued the pseudo-state oil company Pemex — and the pollution of the Zihuatanejo Bay (near Acapulco on the Pacific coast of Guerrero state), blamed on the negligence of state and federal authorities who failed to develop a strategy to prevent or mitigate it.

The Resistance Struggle

The newspaper La Jornada reported on March 16 that at the joint press conference he held with former IMF director Michel Camdessus, World Water Council president Pierre-Fréderic Téniére-Buchot said that “they should raise fees, taxes, whatever is missing, because free water is very dangerous for people, for public health, for the state. If you don’t pay a normal price for the liquid, you get yourself into a lot of trouble.” Nevertheless, he clarified that he is “in favor of free water for the poor and that industries and the rich pay double or triple the price.” This seems like it will be the main line taken at the official forum.

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