21 March 2009 | News – Press Release Ministers at the World Water Forum need to pay more attention to the environment if they want to solve the world’s water crisis, according to IUCN. “Governments have to realize that nature has a vital role to play in giving people clean drinking water, food and livelihoods,” [...]
Fixing Our Water Crisis Can't Be Done by the Corporations that Are Exacerbating It
By Jeff Conant, AlterNet. Posted April 2, 2009. If we learned anything from the World Water Forum it should be that the privatization model has failed and a grassroots movement is needed. As the Fifth World Water Forum ended recently in Istanbul, a number of stories came out, each of which might have emerged as [...]
Sin aqua non
Mar 21st 2009 | ISTANBUL From Economist.com Dams are making a comeback IT WAS political theatre as usual. Two demonstrators from a non-governmental organisation (NGO) called International Rivers disrupted the opening ceremony of the fifth World Water Forum, a week-long gathering in Istanbul of the great and good who work on matters watery which concludes [...]
'Right to water' at centre of world forum debate
21 March | Istanbul ISTANBUL (AFP) — Ministerial-level talks on the world’s worsening problems of water scarcity, pollution and sanitation began here Friday amid discord over whether water should be considered a fundamental “right” or a “need.” More than 100 ministers or their stand-ins from around the globe are meeting at the World Water Forum [...]
Global Dam Experts Find World Water Forum Expands the Global Water Divide
International Rivers | Press Release | March 20, 2009 Istanbul, Turkey — At a press conference today at the Fifth World Water Forum (WWF), a panel of international experts and activists denounced the undemocratic methods of the WWF and World Water Council. They reaffirmed their opposition to large dams, the impacts of which include increased [...]
Turkey, Syria cooperate on water front
YONCA POYRAZ DOĞAN İSTANBUL | Today’s Zaman | 20 March 2009 With water in the Middle East being depleted and demand growing fast, Turkey and Syria have put their differences aside and begun findings ways to share water equitably through innovative projects. One project both countries agreed in principle to develop is the Asi Friendship [...]
Fifth World Water Forum Marked by Violence and Repression
By Jeff Conant, AlterNet | March 17, 2009. As the World Water Forum opened in Istanbul Turkey yesterday, 300 Turkish activists gathered near the forum’s entrance were faced with an overwhelming force of 2000-3000 police. The peaceful protest quickly escalated as police charged the crowd, firing water cannons, tear gas, and rubber bullets and lunging [...]
Access to Sanitation Reserved for the VIPs at World Water Forum
By Meera Karunananthan, Council of Canadians | March 18, 2009. It’s a perfect statement about the World Water Forum’s agenda serving the rich and powerful while the poor are denied access to water. Yesterday, I picked up my media accreditation for the World Water Forum. I now don’t need to pay the exorbitant fee of [...]
