Stop the World Water Forum and World Water Council

We the undersigned want to express our concern over the 5th World Water Forum, which is being held in Istanbul, Turkey on March 16-22, 2009. The 5th Forum's website states that the forum is "an open, all-inclusive, multi-stakeholder process" where governments, NGOs, businesses and others "create links, debate and attempts to find solutions to achieve water security." The World Water Council, the main organizer of the forum, was created in 1996 as an international multi-stakeholder platform "to promote awareness, build political commitment and trigger action on critical water issues." While these are commendable goals, our concern stems from the powerful roles that the two largest water corporations, Suez and Veolia, have in the Council. Mr. Loic Fauchon, president of the Council, is also the president of Groupe des Eaux de Marseille, a company owned equally between Veolia and a subsidiary of Suez. Mr. Charles-Louis de Maud'huy, the alternate president, has been working at Compagnie Generale des Eaux, a subsidiary of Veolia, since 1978. We believe that the Council's links to Suez and Veolia and the large representation of the business industry in the Council comprises the legitimacy of the Council and 5th Forum. We are concerned about how past forums promoted policies, such as Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs or P3s), that privatize segments of the water sector. PPPs in Bolivia, the US, and other countries around the world resulted in price hikes, water pollution and water cut-offs preventing people from accessing clean water. Despite these and other harmful impacts, the World Water Council and World Water Forums still promote PPPs and private sector involvement. The Camdessus Report from the 3rd Forum promoted policies that minimize risks for corporations using public funds and lock governments into contracts. Locked into contracts, governments would be penalized for canceling a contract, even if they did so because their citizens could not access clean water. The policies of this report are still shaping water contracts today. Based on these reasons, we believe that the 5th World Water Fourm and the World Water Council do not help to achieve water security. In fact, we believe that they threaten people's ability to access to clean water.Therefore, in solidarity with the Global Water Justice Movement, we the undersigned demand that you dismantle the World Water Council and commit to making the 5th Forum the last. We demand that you step aside and allow the United Nations, governments, progressive organizations and water activists to create a truly open, transparent and legitimate Global Forum on Water.Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.