Published Wednesday, July 21, 2010 at 1:56 am | Permalink
Water commons colleagues Maude Barlow and Anil Naidoo are at the UN rallying support for the right to water and sanitation. Read about this historic moment and the opportunity to take part in making history. Please take action in your country—it is likely to be a very close vote.
Published Tuesday, June 22, 2010 at 4:45 am | Permalink
Our Water Commons is thrilled to participate in the United States Social Forum. It will be a tremendous opportunity to strengthen coalition work with water-related organizations in the US and around the world for the hard work over the years ahead. Come join us and read more about what we'll be up to.
Published Thursday, May 13, 2010 at 4:28 am | Permalink
At the alternative climate summit in Cochabamba, Bolivia, criticism was sharp and unrelenting about the false climate change solutions that imperil our commons. Rightly so. Many of the solutions proposed through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) are based on poor science (basic hydrology seems to be absent), lucrative carbon markets and only measly changes in Northern production and consumption - practices that got us into this greedy and perilous situation in the first place.
Published Tuesday, May 11, 2010 at 12:37 am | Permalink
Bostonians got an amazing glimpse of our water commons this week — as an entire infrastructure of largely invisible “commons” institutions revealed itself.
On Saturday afternoon, I was driving home to Boston from a meeting on the North Shore of Massachusetts. My cell phone rang with a bilingual message indicating that a major water main had broken west of Boston and that we should boil all water for a minute. As I approached the city, electronic billboards flashed signs “Boil Water, Emergency Advisory.”
Published Friday, March 19, 2010 at 3:39 pm | Permalink
The battle to preserve water as a common good has taken to the Roman streets. As you turn on the tap to hydrate yourself , please take a moment to think of our Italian colleagues fighting to overturn the water-privatizing Ronchi law.
Here’s a really illuminating exchange between two European water activists, one Italian and one German about the implications of the Italian fight for European water.
“Dear friends,
Just a brief update on what's happing in Italy.
At the end of November 2009, a new law was approved. Its name is Ronchi Law: the starting point of water services privatization was launched!
Published Friday, March 5, 2010 at 7:22 am | Permalink
People cringe in horror when they learn that Bechtel, in its quest to privatize water supplies in Bolivia years ago, actually prohibited people from capturing rainwater in barrels. But it turns out that a similar rule already applies to water in the State of Colorado. Under a legal doctrine of “prior appropriation,” it is illegal for someone to capture rainwater because it is preventing water from reaching a river, whose supplies are already allocated and owned by someone.
Published Wednesday, September 9, 2009 at 2:16 am | Permalink
The pursuit of globalization has "led to a downsizing of social security systems as the price to be paid for seeking greater competitive advantage in the global market, with consequent grave danger for the rights of workers," and "budgetary policies, with cuts in social spending often made under pressure from international financial institutions, can leave citizens powerless in the face of old and new risks; such powerlessness is increased by the lack of effective protection on the part of workers' associations.
Published Wednesday, September 9, 2009 at 2:08 am | Permalink
What to do when Mexico City, the eighth-largest city in the world, swallows up watersheds, diverts water from neighboring towns and villages and sinks a bit deeper each year due to over-extraction of water?
Published Wednesday, September 9, 2009 at 2:02 am | Permalink
For over two weeks, Gloucester, Massachusetts residents and businesses were ordered to boil all water. For Dunkin’ Donuts, coffee is a big seller and with no boiling facilities, the boil order meant sharp temporary layoffs at their stores. You may not care much about Dunkin' Donuts' profit margins, but your heart would likely go out to the unemployed families.
