A remarkable piece of water history should have been headline news everywhere this week.
After more than a decade of grassroots organizing and lobbying, the global water justice movement achieved a significant victory when the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to affirm "the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation...
On July 28, after years of grassroots pressure, the United Nations’ General Assembly will consider and debate a resolution supporting the right to "safe and clean drinking water and sanitation”.
Maude Barlow, former Senior Advisor on Water to the President of the United Nations General Assembly described the denial of access to clean water as the...
It is widely acknowledged that greenhouse gas emission-fuelled climate change is having a profound and negative impact on fresh water systems around the world. Warmer weather causes more rapid evaporation of lakes and rivers, reduced snow and ice cover on open water systems, and melting glaciers. What is less understood is that our collective...
Torrents of mud and boulders flattened villages in El Salvador recently, leaving over 100 people dead and thousands homeless. From all indications, climate change will be most acutely felt in an escalating frequency and ferocity of floods and droughts. It’s chilling to think that we ought to expect much more of this kind of devastation in the...
From February 1 to 3, 2010, the Reclaiming Public Water Network held an international seminar in Brussels to bring together people involved in strategic organizing around global water challenges and “people-centered solutions.” Over three days, participants from more than 30 countries shared knowledge and experiences about how to improve water...
How does improved water stewardship fit into cooling our planet? How well were the water-climate connections made at the recent Copenhagen climate deliberations?
If you're like me, you only have a lay person's understanding of ecology – and global politics for that matter. But I do know that the CO2 reduction and carbon sequestration strategies...
In the first hours of 2010, the city of Paris, whose water system has been under various forms of mixed public and private management for much of the last century, took back public control of its water utility. The decision is emblematic of changes occurring throughout the world, with the wave of utility privatizations ebbing in the face of...
It’s not so unusual to see water stories topping the news these days. Even when that news is very bad, that’s very good news indeed.
The stories are frequently troubling; they should be. Climate change is increasing the ferocity of floods and droughts and water privatization is drowning our democracy. But it’s about time that the seamy details of...
If we learned anything from the World Water Forum it should be that the privatization model has failed and a grassroots movement is needed.
As the Fifth World Water Forum ended recently in Istanbul, a number of stories came out, each of which might have emerged as the main water story of the week. But in fact, to see the most important story of...
One man gathers rain to recharge groundwater reserves and another pushes salt water through a desalination plant for subsequent sale. Are these both viable solutions to the world’s water crisis?
With the impacts of climate change, water waste, contamination and mismanagement fast accumulating, ensuring clean and plentiful water to both people and...
