Religious Order Partnership ALERT
May, 2006

send a postcard or letter today! Small steps make a difference.

May Alert: WATER

The International Monetary Fund and World Bank are sponsoring water privatization projects with the full support of funding from governments, aid agencies and the United Nations. We call for a moratorium on all IFM/World Bank water privatization programs until a set of strict conditions can be put in place to ensure total public control over all water service projects in every country.

Send postcard to:

International Monetary Fund
Mr. James Michael Flaherty
Canadian Board Member

or Ms. Nancy P. Jacklin, US Representative of the Executive Board

International Monetary Fund
700 19th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20431

World Bank
Paul Wolfowitz, President
or Ralph Goodale (Canada Board of Directors)
or Carole Brookins, (US Board of Directors)
The World Bank
1818 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20433

Dear_____________

I strongly oppose commercial water trade. Commercial export of bulk water by tanker, water bags and diversion must be banned. Water is a basic right and needs to be protected to ensure safe, publicly supplied drinking water so that citizens are not forced to pay high prices for water in bottles. The practice of selling local water supplies to large corporate bottlers disenfranchises farmers and local communities.

I urge you to stop water privatization projects.

Sincerely,
Name
Congregation

Additional Background for letters:

Over one billion people are being denied the access to clean water.

The rights of private capital have grown exponentially while those of the world’s poor have fallen off the political map.

It is no coincidence that the deterioration and depletion of the world’s water systems have taken place concurrently with the rise in power of transnational corporations and a global financial system in which communities, Indigenous peoples and smaller farmers have been disenfranchised.

An ecologically sound water sustainable future will not happen if the world’s water is put on the open market for sale to the highest bidder.

If citizens lose control of the use of water, we as citizens will lose the ability to set the conditions according to which fresh water can be preserved and equitably shared.

For more information:

-www.polarisinstitute.org

-Inside the Bottle: An Expose’ of the Bottle Water Industry by Tony Clarke,

Polaris Institute, 2005

-Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke,

The New Press, New York, 2004.

 

Religious Orders PartnershipPartnership for Global Justice
2006 Annual Meeting
Water: Thirsting for Justice
April 27-29, 2006
New York City
Holy Family Catholic Church and United Nations Headquarters

This meeting will gather members of the Religious Orders Partnership and Associates to bring our collective voices to the global agenda; to be a voice for the poor as the new world order emerges; to act on our vision statements and chapter enactments calling us to collaboration and action for global systemic change. In particular, this year we will focus on how we understand water as a basic human need and a primary source of life so that our voice is firmly established in our primary vowed and Christian commitments reaching out to those in need.


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