June 12, 2000
European environmental parties have joined forces with seven of the world's poorest nations to call for an end to the privatization of global water resources.
At a "summit" devoted to water problems, representatives from Burkina Faso, Senegal, Madagascar, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Palestine and Bolivia on Wednesday said the privatization of water utilities was threatening peoples' right to free access to the vital resource.
"Drought is a man-made disaster," said Vandana Shiva, noted environmentalist and honorary president of the so-called P-7 group of the world's poorest nations.
Privatization policies followed by the World Bank and the World Trade Organization (WTO) were encouraging control of water resources by multinational companies and exacerbating water shortages across the globe, she said.
Access to water is a "fundamental universal right," stressed Paul Lannoye, president of the green group of environmental parties in the European Parliament.
In a reference to tensions over water in West Asia, Palestinian representative Chawki Armali warned that Israelis used an average of 300 litres of water, per head and per day. In contrast, Palestinians had to make do with 50 litres of water for each individual per day.
The P-7 summit is organized every year in Brussels by the European Parliament's green group to highlight development issues. The group sees the meeting as an alternative to the annual G7 summit encounter of the world's most industrialized nations.
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