This
meeting will be an opportunity for strategising between public water
operators, civil society, trade unions and researchers, within and
associated with the Reclaiming Public Water Network. The aim is to
strengthen the global coalition for democratic public water provision.
One
of the main issues of discussion will be the progress made on
public-public partnerships (PuPs) . Going beyond a narrow definition of
‘public’, we frame PuPs as a concrete tool to connect different actors
to share experiences and knowledge to improve public water systems.
While PuPs are flexible and diverse, there are clear characteristics
such as serving the public interest, while being strictly
not-for-profit.
At
the strategy meeting we want to further clarify the meaning of
‘public’, as part of discussing our visions of public water in future.
We aim to advance our discussions on ‘publicness’ and how to build
democratic, environmentally sound public water provision that is
accountable to the citizens. Importantly, inspiration for promoting
alternatives to water privatization and commodification often comes from
struggles for water justice which we have engaged in.
The
strategy meeting will explore how to strengthen the struggles against
privatisation of water services and commodification of water resources
by proposing concrete counter-narratives, policies and practices.
Specifically, we should find ways to more strongly support alternatives
emerging from local water justice struggles. The meeting aims to come up
with common strategies and plans for joint advocacy activities.
Programme
Day 1 (Monday 25 November)
9:15- 10:00 registration and coffee
10:00 Welcome and introduction round
Summary of outcomes from different meetings organized by participants
11:00-13:00 Session 1 (plenary panel)
Alternatives
emerging from struggles against privatization and commodification of
water: fighting to return water services into public.
Coordinator: Gabriella Zanzanaini (Food and Water Europe)
We
will discuss our struggles in context such as what we are fighting in
different struggles for water democracy. What are the new threats and
how can we resist these? As well as strategizing on how we can build our
capacity to form democratic structure through remunicipalisation
process or reform existing public water.
-
Nila Ardhianie, Amrta Institute Water literacy: Fighting to reverse
privatization and bring water services into public hands in Jakarta
-
Maria Kanellopoulou, SaveGreekWater, Costis Ripis, Association of
Engineers of the Athens Water Company (EYDAP): Campaigns to stop the
privatisation of public water companies in Greece
-
Kshithija Nanjaraje Urs, National Platform against Privatization in
India: Fighting against PPPs and resource privatization in India
-
Leonard Shang-Quartey, Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC)
: Rebuilding the public utility after failure of PPP in Accra, Ghana.
-
Jørgen Magdahl, FIVAS : New strategies of financial Institutions:
neoliberal public utilities reform and the implications for resistance
- Gabriella Zanzanaini: Global solidarity to stop fracking
Struggles
in context: we are fighting in different struggles for water democracy.
What are the new threats and how to resist these? How we can build our
capacity to form democratic structure through remuniciaplisation process
or reform existing public water? David Hall, former director of PSIRU
helps us to analyze diverse struggles in the common ground, from where
we can start discussing alternative strategies to build democratic
public water.
Questions and debate
13:00- 14:00 Lunch break
14:00-16:00 Session 2
Building new models of public water (management)
Coordinator: David McDonald (Municipal Services Project)
What do we mean by ‘public’?
The
notion of ‘public’ goes beyond public water operators managed either by
municipalities or states. Water systems managed by communities also
play an important role. What is the role of the communities in the
global south in the provision of water?
The
pressure for corporatisation applies to public operators in the global
South and North. But corporatisation may undermine social,
environmental, and labour protection standards. To be able to challenge
this dominant discourse, it will be important to discuss ‘efficiency’
and develop a common vision of ‘social efficiency’, based on diverse
experiences in different parts of the world.
In
Nigeria, for instance, water service delivery has been very poor in
many states and for decades the public utilities have not served the
people. How we tackle corrupt, unreliable governments and public
institutions, which are unwilling to invest in water delivery? What are
our alternatives to the public water sector reforms based on commercial
incentives and introduction of elements of PPPs that are currently
promoted in many countries, to overcome dysfunctional government
bureaucracy and failing utilities?
There
are successful examples of state water sector reform thorough
democratization of water management, such as in Tamil Nadu, India or
Social Control (participatory mechanism) in many cities in Brazil.
Democratisation is also at the centre of the debate in Berlin, where the
private water operator has left and the biggest municipal PPP project
in Germany has come to the end. In the discussions about how to build a
democratic, transparent, ecological and social water model in Berlin, a
key challenge is to create a meaningful participatory mechanism within
the public utility Berliner Wasserbetriebe (BWB).
Discussion starters
Emilio
Pachon, manager of Aguas del Huesna, Seville Spain, members of AEOPAS
(Spanish Association of Public Services for Water Supply and Sanitation)
Christa Hecht, Allianz der öffentlichen Wasserwirtschaft (AöW) e.V
Berlin Water Table, Dorothea Haerlin
Milton Machado, Obras Sanitarias del Estado (OSE, state water company in Uruguay) (t.b.c)
Babatope Babalobi, Water and Sanitation Media Network Nigeria
Lukas Strahlhofer, arbeiterkammer (AK): Successful public water supply in Austria. What do we mean successful public supply?
16:15- 18:00 Session 3
Human rights to water and sanitation, making it real
Coordinator: Satoko Kishimoto
We
will discuss strategies for recognition and implementation of the human
right to water. While the 2010 Resolution by the UN General Assembly on
the human right to water and sanitation (A/64/292) was a significant
achievement, struggles and conflicts over water resources continue.
Destructive dams, mining activities and bottling industries are
polluting and depriving people from access to water.
What role can the
human right to water play in solving such water conflicts on the ground?
How can national water policies help secure real progress towards
implementing the human right to water? Is public water provision the
best (or only) approach towards implementing the human right to water
and sanitation? It's clear that privatisation is failing (in terms of
connecting people, long term perspective to protect resources, avoiding
pollution, reducing water consumption, etc.), but there is also the
reality that many public authorities and operators are failing on these
same points. Is the human right to water as an effective legal tool to
solve conflicts? What are the next steps for the European Citizen
Initiative (ECI) on the right to water? Moreover, the ‘green economy’
discourse and water-food-land ‘nexus’ policies develop are gaining
momentum. Both are focused on the efficiency of water resource use, but
what does efficiency mean, for whom and decided by whom, and how does
this relate to the right to water? How we can challenge all these
market-based approaches which are at odds with water commons and
democracy.?
Discussion starters
Clivia Conrad (Ver.di, Germany)
Meera Karunananthan (Blue Planet Project)
Matilda Kimetto (Kenya County Government Workers union)
Mohamed Ibrahim and Does Vandousselaere, Habi Center for Environmental Rights, Cairo
Lidia Serrano, Ingeniería Sin Fronteras Barclona
Juan Carlos, EPMAPS (Empresa Pública Metropolitana de Agua Potable y Saneamiento EPMAPS), Ecuador
18:00
Wrap up Day 1 : set up informal working groups to prepare for Day 2
(what mean by public, human right to water, solidarity for Greece,
Jakarta, Ghana etc..)
Short preparatory meeting for the GWOPA congress.
20:00 Dinner
Day 2 (Tuesday 26 November):
9:00-9:30 Coffee
9:30-11:30 Session 4 (plenary)
Public-Public Partnerships (PUPs): diversity and impacts
Coordinator: Mary Ann Manahan (Focus on the Global South)
In
this session we will share the practices and the values underlying
different models of PUPs, ranging from community partnerships and
inter-municipal partnerships. We will discuss how PuPs contribute to
providing safe, accessible and affordable water to poor and marginalized
communities. Another focus will be how PUPs can help improving water
resources management, watershed protection and source development? How
we can engage in international initiatives such as Water Operators
Partnerships (WOPs)? How we can strengthen our advocacy work to enlarge
financial support for public-public partnerships (PuPs), such as through
the ACP-EU water facility? How we can build alliances between urban and
rural organisations, trade unions, and citizens?
Discussion starters:
- Marcela Olivera and Adriana Marquisio, Platform for Public Community Partnerships in Americas (PAPC)
- Samir Bensaid, ONEE (National Office for Electricity and Drinking Water Supply Morocco)
- MWA Waterworks Academy Metropolitan Waterworks Authority (MWA) (Bangkok, Thailand)
- Daniel Moss, Our Water Commons
- Sindicato de Trabajadores de Acuavalle SA ESP (SINTRACUAVALLE, Colombia)
- Albert Testart, CONGIAC, Catalan Public Utilities Association
- members of AEOPAS (Spanish Association of Public Services for Water Supply and Sanitation)
Discussion: What are challenges to engage in PuPs and how to overcome them?
What
are obstacles to engage in PuPs respectively in public and community
operators’, workers’, citizens’ point of views? Bottom up grassroots
strategies to create political support. Look at the (enabling)
institutional design, legal framework and internal and external
governance of successful partnerships.
11:30-11:50
PuP
in context: Emanuele Lobina (PSIRU): How do we define the kinds of PUPs
which we want to promote? The underlying philosophy and the concept of
publicness; the variety of partners involved and objectives pursued
(communities, unions and citizens' groups in water partnerships). How
PuPs really contribute to providing safe, accessible and affordable
water to poor and marginalized communities (equity issue); examples of
how PuPs are useful as part of the alternative to privatization.
12:00- 13:00 Lunch break
13:00 - 14:30 Strategic discussions for joint action (3 groups)
1.
PuPs - how to overcome the challenges to engaging in Public-public,
public-community partnerships?
Coordinator: AEOPAS and Milo Fiasconnaro (Aqua Pabulica Europea).
2. Promoting policies to strengthen and democratize public water delivery and implement the right to water (not definite).
3. Strengthen water justice campaigns (not definite)
14:30- 15:00 Report back from 3 groups.
15:00 – 17:00 Wrap-up discussion: Our counter-narratives and joint strategies. What are our collective outcomes of this meeting? Sharing the political calendar and making joint action plans.
Practical information
17:30 Closing
Location
CCOO (the headquarters of Comisions Obreres)
Via laietana 16
Barcelona
Spain
Στα 181,57 ευρώ διαμορφώθηκε το τρίτο τρίμηνο του 2013 η μέση μηνιαία σύνταξη στη Ρουμανία, σύμφωνα με όσα ανακοίνωσε σήμερα η στατιστική υπηρεσία της χώρας.
Στα 181,57 ευρώ διαμορφώθηκε το τρίτο τρίμηνο του 2013 η μέση μηνιαία σύνταξη στη Ρουμανία, σύμφωνα με όσα ανακοίνωσε σήμερα η στατιστική υπηρεσία της χώρας.
