We've moved to a new site!

Join us at publicservices.international - for all the latest news, resources and struggles from around the world.

We are no longer updating world-psi.org and it will be progressively phased out: all content will be migrated to the new site and old links will redirect eventually.

Water and sanitation

Letter from JALGO (Jamaica) to the World Bank: stop supporting water prizatization

22 July 2016

"Water privatization, including PPPs, have failed time and time again from India to the Philippines to Nigeria, causing skyrocketing tariffs, cutoffs of families who cannot afford to pay, worker layoffs, corruption and mismanagement, quality problems, and major accountability, transparency and governance problems."

Tell the World Bank to stop promoting water privatization

Photo: Kate Holt - Africa Practice - Creative Commons
PSI is working with a number of allies to put pressure on the World Bank to stop promoting water privatization under the disguise of public private partnerships (PPPs). Send a letter to the World Bank Executive Director representing your country asking that the World Bank end all support for water privatization!

The road to Quito: workers and decent employment must be at the heart of the New Global Agenda!

06 June 2016
H III

The countdown for Habitat III - the UN conference that is expected to set out the new guidelines for urban policies - has begun. The ‘United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development ’ – as it is officially called - will take place in Quito, Ecuador, 17 – 20 October 2016.

Global Water Justice Movement Challenges World Bank's attempt to promote privatization of water through UN SDG Agenda

22 April 2016
Meera Karunananthan speaks at the UN

A letter was sent on 22 April to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon by water justice organizations from around the world expressing deep concerns about a new “high-level” panel convened by the World Bank at the United Nations focusing on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goal on water and sanitation. 

US Congresswoman Urges World Bank Moratorium on Water Privatisation

20 April 2016
Gwen Moore

Gwen Moore wrote to president Jim Yong Kim to critique the World Bank Group and its private sector lending arm, the International Finance Corporation, over its policies and lending practices that favour water privatisation.

PSI stresses the failures of PPPs at UN World Water Day event

25 March 2016
David Boys

During the opening session of the event at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Geneva, on 22 March, David Boys, PSI Deputy General Secretary, underlined that PSI does not support the reliance on public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the water sector.

Water sector workers meet in Buenos Aires to defend the human rights to water

25 March 2016

At the event organised by the CONTAGUAS and the SGBATOS, workers defended the human right to water and emphasised the importance of public services for guaranteeing this right. They launched a manifesto, which was also signed by the PSI.

Water and Sanitation are Human Rights, NOW!

logo

On 22 March, PSI celebrated World Water Day. The UN Sustainable Development Goal 6 requires that governments ensure universal access to water and sanitation by 2030. However, we are seeing a new push for public-private partnerships (PPPs). We know that PPPs fail to deliver social and environmental targets, and PSI will help affiliates block this approach. We call for a rights-based approach, with public finance and management in the interests of all.