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Water and sanitation

Clean water and sanitation – recently recognised by the United Nations as basic human rights – are critical to good health. They help prevent disease. Yet billions of people have no ready access to safe water. It is an essential service that governments must provide to protect their citizens and serve their common good. Read more here

Defining the Value of Water from a rights-based perspective (New York)

18 July 2018

This side event to the UN High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, co-sponsored by PSI, will focus on recommendations to “value water”. Using a rights-based lens, panelists will explore the ways in which water is valued in communities, cultures and faiths around the world exploring the ways in which market-based strategies have distorted these long-held values and further marginalized segments of the population.

The right to water is a fundamental human right. No life without water.

10 July 2018

PSI General Secretary, Rosa Pavanelli, took the floor at the UN High Level Political Forum during the first global review of SDG 6, water and sanitation, emphasising that, rather than promoting failed PPPs, the SDG process should look at public-public partnerships that are flourishing around the world.

SDG6: Water and sanitation are fundamental services, privatization is not a means of implementation!

10 July 2018

The ambition and breadth of the UN's Sustainable Development Agenda has been the object of both praise and ridicule. This report examines the challenges facing the implementation of SDG6, water and sanitation, and the bold strategies required to overcome them.

Sustainable development needs fundamental policy changes

09 July 2018

New York, 9 July 2018: “The world is off-track in terms of achieving sustainable development and fundamental policy changes are necessary to unleash the transformative potential of the SDGs.” Global civil society report assesses obstacles and contradictions in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

RWANDA: Illegally dismissed SYPELGAZ trade union members to return to court on June 4

25 May 2018

PSI affiliate SYPELGAZ (Trade Union for Energy, Water and Sanitation in Rwanda) has been in court since May 2016, to demand for proper compensation of its five illegally dismissed Union Executive Committee Members and various other longtime denied labor related rights. After hearing explanations from both sides, the Court has deferred further pronouncements on the case to June 4.

“Stop mounting pressure on countries to privatize water.” PSI sends cautionary calls to World Bank.

17 May 2018

PSI is calling on the World Bank to cease mounting pressure on countries to privatize water and other public services, says Sani Baba Mohammed, PSI Regional Secretary for Africa and Arab Countries.

Cameroon Water Back in Public Hands

01 May 2018

On May Day 2018, Cameroon celebrates not only the gains made by workers and trade unions over the years, but can also celebrate the end of a ten-year experiment with privatisation of water services management. May 1st 2018 is the day that the government of Cameroon regains control of its water utility.

Troubled Waters: Misleading industry PR and the case for public water

15 December 2014

Emanuele Lobina of the PSI Research Unit (PSIRU) and author of a new report "Troubled Waters", commissioned by Corporate Accountability International, argues private water companies could spell disaster for the city's water system

COP20: The public option in green policies

09 December 2014
Windmills - Photo: Pablo LordFerguson (Creative Commons: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/)

As the UN Climate Change Summit, COP20, in Lima, Peru, draws to an end, PSI highlights the special role of local and national government structures in developing, implementing and monitoring green policies.

Here to stay: Water remunicipalisation as a global trend

01 December 2014
Here to stay

On 13 November 2014, the Transnational Institute (TNI), Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU) and the Multinational Observatory released a new report called “Here to stay: Water remunicipalisation as a global trend”.

The work of the ants: Labour and community reinventing public water in Colombia

15 October 2014

Water services in Colombia’s rural and peri-urban areas have traditionally been delivered by a rich variety of autonomous community-owned aqueducts. This action-research project documents the struggles of one such community to preserve and reinforce its aqueduct as an alternative to both private and ‘state’ modes of service delivery.

India: Core labour standards not implemented in ADB funded projects

02 September 2014
India - Sewage treatment plant, Kavoor, Mangalore, India. Photo: ADB

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) Handbook on Core Labour Standards 2005, committed to comply with the internationally recognized core labour standards (CLS) and related labour laws in the design, formulation and operation of its loans to the developing countries. However the workers in the projects have identified union busting, harassment or physical violence against unions and discrimination and dismissals and other work-related anti-union/worker actions etc. in the projects and the compliance according to the CLS handbook is not strictly observed.

Health and safety agreement between Global Unions and GDF-Suez (2014)

16 June 2014

Global Unions and GDF-Suez signed a global agreement on 14 May 2014 that will define and implement fundamental principles regarding health and safety at work within GDF SUEZ companies.

PSI statement on World Water Day, 22 March 2014

19 March 2014
Water - photo World Bank

As the United Nations celebrates World Water Day on 22 March 2014, we must be aware of and continue to challenge the fundamental tensions polarising people and planet. Social inequality is growing, climate change is accelerating, and governments are not taking leadership for democratic change. Many governments continue to ignore the most basic rights of people, including the Human Right to Water and Sanitation.

After Yolanda: Government employees are also human beings

11 March 2014

Four months after Typhoon Haiyan, or Yolanda as it's known in the Phlippines, PSI affiliate in the Philippines, PSLINK, has put together a photo report of the effects Yolanda has had on the population and more specifically on the lives of public sector workers.

The impact of hurricane Sandy on consolidated Edison of New York

10 February 2014
UWUA

This position paper produced by the Utility Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO, is an assessment of restoration efforts and gives recommendations for the future.

Resolution 25: Labour brokers/employment agencies in the public sector

03 February 2014

The 29th World Congress of Public Services International (PSI),
meeting in Durban, South Africa, on 27-30 November 2012

Resolution 24: Austerity and Privatisation

31 January 2014

The 29th World Congress of Public Services International (PSI),
meeting in Durban, South Africa, on 27-30 November 2012

Resolution 37: Ethical International Recruitment

30 January 2014

 The 29th World Congress of Public Services International (PSI), meeting in Durban, South Africa, on 27-30 November 2012

Resolution 11: Redress taxation systems to adequately fund public services

29 January 2014

The 29th World Congress of Public Services International (PSI),
meeting in Durban, South Africa, on 27-30 November 2012

Organisations denounce Nestlé’s new human rights impact assessment

20 December 2013

Nestlé’s new human rights assessment, launched at the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights last week, is full of holes say labour and civil society organizations, including the Blue Planet Project, FIVAS, Food & Water Watch, and Public Services International.

Water, electricity and the political context in Arab countries 2011

11 April 2013

This report examines the electricity and water sectors in North African and Middle Eastern countries, including the record of privatisations, and the potential implications of the democracy movements, and the response of international institutions, as of September 2011.