Activists will be in Marseille, France from March 12-17 to hold an alternative to the 6^th World Water Forum, a corporate event that is positioning industry to play an even greater role in global water policy. This year more than two thousand representatives from global civil society are converging on Marseilles to protest the forum and organize the Alternative World Water Forum (in French, Forum Alternatif Mondial de l’Eau, or FAME).

Why is the World Water Forum an illegitimate space to forge global water policy?

• The World Water Forum is organized by the World Water Council, which has close ties to multinational water companies seeking to profit off of the provision of water to the nearly one billion people who lack clean water and the roughly 2.6 billion who lack access to proper sanitation. These meetings are exclusive, costly to attend, and provide industry a venue to promote their services and lobby and influence government representatives and their water policies.
• Legitimate, participatory venues exist for policymaking, from the United Nations to the national and community levels.
• Water is a human right, not a commodity. The UN has declared water a human right, and now it’s time for nations to codify this right into laws that provide clean water and sanitation to their citizens.

For More Information:

• World Water Forum Paves the Way to Privatize Nature, Undermine Human Right to Water in RIO+20
• Why World Water Forum “Solutions” Miss The Mark
• Two Pictures of the World Water Forum Are Worth A Thousand Words
• Why Will Activists Be Protesting the World Water Forum? 

• Five Arrested at World Water Forum