On March 20, a letter was delivered to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon in New York urging him to withdraw his support from the CEO Water Mandate - a voluntary initiative promoted as a way for corporations to make progress toward protecting water resources. Laura Roskos of US WILPF was among leaders from more than 125 environmental, public health, water justice, human rights and corporate accountability organizations in 35 countries who signed the letter. The Letter was delivered by Tony Clarke of the Polaris Institute (Ottawa, CA) and others to coincide with the U.N.'s World Water Day on March 22 to call attention to the threats posed by corporate control of public water resources.

In the March 20 press release, Clarke pointed out that the CEO Water Mandate fosters corporate control and threatens global access to water. "Corporations like Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Suez and others that have joined the CEO Water Mandate have drawn criticism from around the world for practices that threaten people's access to water," he said. A closer look at the mandate inspired the Polaris Institute to initiate this action.

"Although the stated purpose of the CEO Water Mandate is to make progress toward protecting water resources," Clarke added, "we are concerned that it is really a thinly veiled public relations effort by for-profit corporations to gain greater control over water resources and services around the world. This is a prime example of ‘greenwashing' and the U.N. should not be giving it credibility and support."

"The United Nations should play a vital and active role toward protecting water as a human right and ecological trust," says Rafael Colmenares of the Comité Nacional en Defensa del Agua y de la Vida in Colombia. "Instead, through the CEO Water Mandate, the U.N. is helping to advance corporate control of water."

WILPF's Save the Water Campaign has emphasized how the major bottled water corporations, such as Nestle, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, along with water service corporations, such as Suez and Bechtel, consider water as a commodity for sale to the highest bidder, not as a resource to be protected for the common good and a public service that must be safe, affordable and sufficient for all people and households. The Save the Water Campaign has consistently advocated for local, public, and democratic control of this essential resource for people, our communities, and nature.

The letter and list of signers can be viewed at:

http:// www.polarisinstitute.org/archive/200803 (click on the link for March 25, 2008)