16th March 2003

People's National Water Forum

The Jal Biradari, the national network of Water Conservation movement convened by the Tarun Bharat Sangh and the Jal Swaraj Abhiyan, the National Water Liberation - Water Rights Movement convened by Navdanya/ Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology co-organized a two-day gathering of water experts and water activists to address urgent water issues including privatization and river linking.

The People's National Water Forum was organized at the end of phase one of the national Jal Yatra launched by Rajendra Singh, Magasasay Award winner for 2001, which has already covered Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Orissa and Uttaranchal and will be going through the rest of India to create awareness on water conservation and water privatization. Mr. Ambuj Kishor of Tarun Bharat Sangh, Dr. Parivesh Mishra of Madhya Pradesh, Arjun Kaka of Aravari River Sansad, and Mr. Aditya Patnaik of Rossa gave reports of water in their regions.

The People's Forum is also the national mobilization of public opinion and articulation of the public interest prior to the Third World Water Forum being organised in Kyoto from 16th to 23rd March 2003 in Japan, which many participants of Jal Biradari and Jal Swaraj Abhiyan including Rajendra Singh of Tarun Bharat Sangh will be attended.

The Forum was attended more than 100 key activists and experts belonging to about 40 groups, institutions, organisations and movements from different parts on India.

Dr. Vandana Shiva opened the meeting with an overview of the positive initiatives being undertaken by people through water harvesting as in Rajasthan and promotion of water prudent organic farming by Navdanya across the country. She also identified the two major threats to water resources and people water rights in the form of water privatization and the project for linking India's rivers.

The keynote address was given by Mr. Oscar Olivera of the Coalition for the Defense of Water and Life (La Coordinadora) in Bolivia which fought against water privatization, drove out Bechtel and is now under taking water planning and water management for Cochabanba. Oscar inspired the Indian movements with the success of the Bolivian people which showed that water privatization is not inevitable. Water Privatization is not inevitable. Water belongs to the Earth and all people, defending water as a common good is the ultimate democratic challenge of our times. A global citizens movement is emerging against water privatization.

Shri Sunderlal Bahuguna of the Chipko Movement, who continues to sit as a witness on the banks of the Bhagirathi while the ravages of the Tehri Dam destroy the most sacred of our rivers and the entire fabric of society in Bhagirathi Valley, traveled to Delhi with Ganga Yatra. While the women of the villages around the Dam site are denied water, 635 million liters of Ganga water are committed to the French multinational Suez for selling in Delhi through the Sonia Vihar plant. From Tehri through Haridwar and Western Uttar Pradesh a movement of the people is growing against the privatization of Ganga. Representatives of the movement of displaced people from Tehri (Kishor Upadhyay, MLA Tehri), and farmers (Dehat Morcha) presented their case at the Forum. Col. Sureshwar Sinha of Panni Morcha showed that Delhi water needs can be met through Delhi water supply if the present culture and policy of pollution and waste was replaced by a culture and policy of conservation and cleaning.

Case studies of privatization of river Sheonath by Radial Company was presented by Shri Binayak Sen of Chattisgarh. The case studies of water theft by coca cola and other bottled water companies were also presented which showed that they draw huge quantity of water without paying a single penny. Azadi Bachao Andolan presented its campaigning against Coal Cola and Pepsi. Participants made a commitment to spread a movement against the growing dependency on bottled water.

Participants condemned the governments commitment on water privatization in its new water policy. They also condemned the use of NGO and panchayats to undermine community rights and collective management of water through setting up water users associations, Pani Panchayats etc. Mr. Anil Choudhury of PEACE in the opening session said that community rights were being assaulted by suing the language of "community". The case of the privatization of the Orissa Lift Irrigation under the garb of Pani Panchayat revealed the double speak of government. Representatives from Punjab shared the news of the new campaign against privatization called TUTI BACHAOO MORCHA (Save our Public Taps movement). The commitment was made to spread these movements in other areas where Swajal and Swajal Dhara are becoming indirect means to privatization.

The mega scheme of linking rivers is also a scheme for privatization since Rs. 560,000 crores is not available in the country and will have to be raised through loans and FDI which will lock the country into privatization. The non-transparency and irregularity with which this project is being rushed threw doubts on its viability and its scientific basis. The movements for water rights made a commitment to assess and evaluate the project, provide alternatives and create resistance if wasteful river diversion schemes are implemented without peoples consent, popular support and adequate environmental impact assessment. Prof. Ramaswamy Iyer, Former Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources, gave an overview of lack of homework that has gone into this megaproject which has been imposed on the country without having gone through the mandatory planning process. Participants from Orissa, Mr. Prafulla Samantra, Dr. Ashok Panigrahi showed that the Mahanadi which is being treated as a surplus river has no water. The very categories of "water surplus" and "water deficit rivers" on which river linking is based is therefore in doubt. The Jal Yatra will be undertaking on the ground assessment of the real state of our rivers so that the people of India are not dependent on false and unreliable data.

Participants also issued a Declaration of their common principles and common commitment to keep water as a common good.