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Water and sanitation

22 March - Water for all... no exception

20 Mar 2019

As we celebrate World Water Day one week after the successful global students strike for climate, similarities between the two events find an echo in the frustration with political systems which refuse to address obvious and urgent needs of the people.

Human rights to water and sanitation lead the way to leaving no one behind, says UN expert

21 March 2019

The call to action comes from Léo Heller, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation.

Trade agreements put our right to water at risk

20 March 2019
Access to tap water in unequal between the poor and the rich in Jakarta.

Trade agreements like the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) are designed to make it easier for foreign multinational corporations to invest and do business. In doing so, they put the rights of citizens and workers second to profits. Read an Op-Ed by Abdul Somad, president of PSI affiliate Jakarta Water Workers’ Union (SP PDAM Jakarta).

Abuja Water Summit Rejects Privatisation Projects

01 February 2019

Unions, civil society organisations and allies convened a Water Summit in Abuja on 29-30 January to call a halt to the water privatisation plans being foisted on the government of Nigeria and state governments by the World Bank, by the US Millennium Challenge Corporation and other groups ideologically committed to privatisation and market control.

Summit against water privatization gathers in Abuja

28 January 2019

Global activists, unionists and human rights advocates will meet in Abuja, on 29-30 January for a national summit that aims at achieving the human right to water in Nigeria and around the world. Participants will come from communities around the world which have been directly impacted by the damages caused by private water industry.

Japan Enacts a Revised Water Supply Act to all for-profit PPPs

14 December 2018

Despite the mounting evidence of the problems of public-private partnerships (PPPs), private concessions, or other forms of turning public water utilities into profit machines for private corporations, the pro-market national government of Japan snuck in a legislative provision to do just that. PSI supports Jichiro, Zensuido and allies opposing water privatisation bill in Japan.

Union strategies to bring public services back in-house

04 December 2018

PSI Global Labour Remunicipalisation workshop is taking place at the ILO in Geneva from 4-5 December. Trade union affiliates from around the world are showcasing local experiences of remunicipalisation and giving union strategies to bring public services back in-house.

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

Date: 
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!

9 Jul 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.