By Walker Foley
With the clock ticking down to the sixth World Water Forum in France, Food & Water Watch encourages you to Occupy this shameless marriage of corporate water lobbyists and our global leaders.
We are dealing with a global water crisis due to the mishandling of our resources, which has left one in eight around the globe without access to clean water. Water is necessary for life – it is a basic human right – but organizations like Veolia and Suez don’t see it that way. Instead, water is a commodity, ready to package and sell. All over the globe these organizations are manipulating the debate and using their influence to rewrite government policy on access to clean water. The World Water Forum is just another means for these corporations to sit down with our politicians behind closed doors.
But we still have a voice! Coinciding with the corporate water forum, activists will be holding an Alternative Water Forum – the Forum Alternatif Mondial de l’Eau. Food & Water Watch is inviting you to join us in Occupying the World Water Forum online. Post your protest on the World Water Forum’s Facebook wall and tweet using the hashtag #WWF6.
Here are some suggestions for Facebook and Twitter to protest water privatization:
- Public water and sanitation is a human right
- People in [your community/country] reject private water and sanitation
- The WWF6 is a corporate trade show: we support a democratic public forum on the human right to water
- The WWF6 is illegitimate
- No more corporate water forums: we need transparent, public participatory discussion on the global water crisis
- Our water is not for sale
- Suez/Veolia out of [name a community]
- The World Water Council does not speak for me
- Water is not a commodity
- Stop the corporatization of water
- Stop trampling on our food sovereignty
For more information check out how You Can Occupy the World Water Forum.