The Americas Unite in Support of Human Right to Water

When facing institutions such as the World Bank and the other development banks, which insist — despite all evidence to the contrary — that the free market is the best mechanism for ensuring efficient use of the world‚ water, it can only help to have a strongly united network of organizations from both the developed and the developing world that can, with complete authority, prove them wrong.

That’s why an important part of Food & Water Watch‚ international work is its role in la Red de Vigilancia Interamericana para la Defensa y Derecho al Agua (the Inter-American Network for the Defense of the Right to Water), or Red VIDA in its Spanish acronym. Formed 6 years ago when 54 organizations from 16 countries gathered in El Salvador to build a hemispheric campaign to defend water as a human right and a common good, the network has grown steadily in size, scope and influence. It is now composed of grassroots groups, trade unions, community water operators, environmental organizations, and other non-governmental groups from North, Central, and South America, all working in support of the human right to water. (To read interviews with Red VIDA members, see our recently published booklet, Changing the Flow.)

FWW Plays Key Role in Colombia Gathering

The Red VIDA holds a strategy and planning meeting every two years, and this May, as in the past, Food & Water Watch played a key role in organizing and attending the Red VIDA Assembly held in Cali, Colombia. Of the many exciting advances made in the Red VIDA over the years, a notable one is that the network is making a strong move from acting as a coalition that simply supports its member groups, to acting as a unified force that takes on campaigns and projects in its own right.

Decision-making in the Red VIDA is done in a way that is, to the extent possible, transparent (meaning everyone knows what‚ being decided, and by whom), horizontal (meaning no one person or faction has power over the others), and democratic (meaning, essentially, one person, one vote). Food & Water Watch, besides helping to support the network economically and through public advocacy, is a member, and participates in decision making along these lines.

Critical Support Given to Colombian Water Movement

It is typical of movements in Latin America that, at the end of any gathering or assembly, a declaration is drafted, agreed to, and shared with the greater world. We’ve just rendered the most recent declaration in English; the language is quite formal, but we think it might be interesting to share with you a few snippets:

“At the Third Hemispheric Assembly of Red VIDA that took place at the Instituto Mayor Campesino in the municipality of Guadalajara de Buga, Colombia, from the 17th to 19th of May 2009, the Network ratified its principles and approved its plan of action for the coming two years.

“Through a wide array of struggles in the Americas for the defense of public water management, in resistance to the privatization of this common good and the social fragmentation and appropriation by the corporate model of development, and consequently, for the defense of territory, our organizations and social movements are advancing alternative models of social and public water management, with participation and social control, within the framework of defense of the common good and the fundamental human right to water.

“Currently, the Red VIDA supports the struggles of Colombians in building a water movement and in defense of public utilities and forms of community management. The National Committee for the Defense of Water and Life in Colombia is right now promoting a constitutional referendum in the defense of water, with the backing of more than 2 million people, establishing an historic milestone in the world struggle for the defense of water.

Why Did We Choose to Meet in Colombia?

Now, if you want to know what this last bit refers to, we mentioned the Colombian constitutional referendum in last fall‚ issue of Defend the Global Commons. But there are some exciting recent developments, which well share with you very soon in an upcoming blog!