Book contents
- Water Justice
- Reviews
- Water Justice
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- 1 Introduction: The Multiple Challenges and Layers of Water Justice Struggles
- Part I Re-Politicizing Water Allocation
- Part II Hydrosocial De-Patterning and Re-Composition
- Part III Exclusion and Struggles for Co-Decision
- Introduction: Exclusion and Struggles for Co-Decision
- 10 Indigenous Peoples and Water Governance in Canada
- 11 Sanitation Justice?
- 12 Uniting Diversity to Build Europe’s Right2Water Movement
- 13 Everyday Water Injustice and the Politics of Accommodation
- 14 Sharing Our Water
- Part IV Governmentality, Discourses and Struggles over Imaginaries and Water Knowledge
- Index
- References
12 - Uniting Diversity to Build Europe’s Right2Water Movement
from Part III - Exclusion and Struggles for Co-Decision
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2018
Book contents
- Water Justice
- Reviews
- Water Justice
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- 1 Introduction: The Multiple Challenges and Layers of Water Justice Struggles
- Part I Re-Politicizing Water Allocation
- Part II Hydrosocial De-Patterning and Re-Composition
- Part III Exclusion and Struggles for Co-Decision
- Introduction: Exclusion and Struggles for Co-Decision
- 10 Indigenous Peoples and Water Governance in Canada
- 11 Sanitation Justice?
- 12 Uniting Diversity to Build Europe’s Right2Water Movement
- 13 Everyday Water Injustice and the Politics of Accommodation
- 14 Sharing Our Water
- Part IV Governmentality, Discourses and Struggles over Imaginaries and Water Knowledge
- Index
- References
Summary
The European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) “Right2Water” ran and collected 1.9 million signatures across Europe in 2012-2013, uniting cities and villages against water privatization. With that result it also became the first successful ECI, simultaneously building a Europe-wide movement and put the water issue high on the European political agenda. “Right2Water” proposed to implement the human right to water and sanitation in European legislation, as a strategic-political tool to fight privatization. Its struggle involved fundamental water quantity and quality distribution issues as well as the question of building a democratic political framework for organizing and defending public water services. The chapter examines how the ECI became successful from a point of awareness raising and a social movement perspective. The campaign united a huge diversity of organizations, in countries with very different conditions of water provision and degree of privatization of water utilities. The European Commission has been forced to subscribe to the principle that “water is a public good, not a commodity”. But, implementing such water justice notion is part of an ongoing socio-political struggle.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Water Justice , pp. 226 - 245Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2018
References
Achterhuis, H., Boelens, R. and Zwarteveen, M. (2010). Water property relations and modern policy regimes: Neoliberal utopia and the disempowerment of collective action. In Boelens, R., Getches, D. and Guevara-Gil (eds.), A., Out of the Mainstream: Water Rights, Politics and Identity, London and Washington, DC: Earthscan, pp. 27–55.Google Scholar
Aquafed. (2013). “Concessions directive: European Commissioner renounces transparency and equity in public water services to please German public lobbies.” Press release June 26, 2013, http://pr.euractiv.com/pr/concessions-directive-european-commissioner-renounces-transparency-and-equity-public-water.Google Scholar
Bakker, K. (2003). An Uncooperative Commodity: Privatizing Water in England and Wales. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bakker, K. (2007). The “commons” versus the “commodity”: Alter-globalization, anti- privatization and the human right to water in the Global South. Antipode, 39(3), 430–55.Google Scholar
Bakker, K. (2010). Privatizing Water: Governance Failure and the World’s Urban Water Crisis. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Balanya, B. (2005). Empowering public water: Ways forward. In Balanya, B., B. Brennan, O. Hoedeman, S. Kishimoto, and P. Terhorst (eds.), Reclaiming Public Water: Achievements, Struggles and Visions from Around the World. Amsterdam: Transnational Institute, pp. 247–75.Google Scholar
Bebbington, A., Humphreys-Bebbington, D. and Bury, J. (2010). Federating and defending: Water, territory and extraction in the Andes. In Boelens, R., Getches, D. H. and Guevara-Gil, J. A. (eds.), Out of the Mainstream: Water Rights, Politics and Identity. London: Earthscan, pp. 307–28.Google Scholar
Berge, J. van den. (2014). Water and sanitation are a human right! Water is a public good, not a commodity! In Berg, C. and Thompson, J. (eds.), An ECI that Works: Learning from the First Two Years of the European Citizens’ Initiative. Alfter, Germany: The ECI Campaign, pp. 19–24.Google Scholar
Bieler, A. (2015). Mobilising for Change: The First Successful European Citizens’ Initiative “Water is a Human Right!” Paper presented at the ETUI Monthly Forum, Brussels/Belgium, January 22, 2015.Google Scholar
Boelens, R. (2015). Water, Power and Identity: The Cultural Politics of Water in the Andes. London: Earthscan, Routledge.Google Scholar
Boelens, R. and Vos, J. (2012). The danger of naturalizing water policy concepts: Water productivity and efficiency discourses from field irrigation to virtual water trade. Journal of Agricultural Water Management, 108, 16–26.Google Scholar
Boelens, R. and Zwarteveen, M. (2005). Prices and politics in Andean water reforms. Development and Change, 36(4), 735–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boelens, R., Hoogesteger, J., Swyngedouw, E., Vos, J. and Wester, P. (2016). Hydrosocial territories: A political ecology perspective. Water International, 41(1), 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CEO. (2012). “EU Commission forces crisis-hit countries to privatize water.” Press release October 17, http://corporateeurope.org/pressreleases/2012/eu-commission-forces-crisis-hit-countries-privatise-waterGoogle Scholar
Conrad, C. (2014). Demokratischer Einfluss auf EU-Ebene? Da geht was! Forum Wissenschaft, 31(1), 34–37.Google Scholar
Deinlein, W. (2014). Kompendium Trinkwasser. Zur Europäischer Bürgerinitiative Right2Water und der EU-Konzessionsrichtlinie. Karlsruhe: Stadtwerke Karlsruhe.Google Scholar
Della Porta, D. and Mosca, L. (2005). Global-net for global movements? A network of networks for a movement of movements. Journal of Public Policy, 25(01), 165–90.Google Scholar
Ecorys SEE. (2015). Analysis of the Public Consultation on the Quality of Drinking Water. Draft report ENV.F.1/FRA/2010/0044, http://ec.europa.eu/environment/consultations/pdf/analysis_drinking_water.pdf.Google Scholar
EEA (European Environmental Agency). (2013). Assessment of Cost Recovery through Water Pricing. EEA Technical Report No. 16/2013.Google Scholar
EPSU. (2009). “Water campaign action plan,” www.epsu.org/sites/default/files/article/files/Water_Campaign_Action_Plan_EN.pdf.Google Scholar
EPSU. (2011). “Right to water and sanitation must be put into action,” www.epsu.org/article/right-water-and-sanitation-must-be-put-action-universal-access-government-responsibility.Google Scholar
European Commission. (2007). Addressing the Challenge of Water Scarcity and Droughts in the European Union. Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council. COM(2007) 414 final.Google Scholar
European Commission. (2009). Lisbon Treaty, article 11(4), www.lisbon-treaty.org/wcm/the-lisbon-treaty/treaty-on-european-union-and-comments/title-2-provisions-on-democratic-principles/75-article-11.html.Google Scholar
European Commission. (2011). Regulation (EU) no. 211/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 2011 on the citizens’ initiative (OJ L 65, 11.3.2011).Google Scholar
European Commission. (2012). Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. A Blueprint to Safeguard Europe’s Water Resources. COM(2012) 673 final.Google Scholar
European Commission. (2013). Exclusion of Water from the Concessions Directive, Statement by Commissioner Barnier in response to Right2water, http://ec.europa.eu/archives/commission_2010-2014/barnier/headlines/speeches/2013/06/20130621_en.html.Google Scholar
European Commission. (2014). Communication from the Commission on the European Citizens’ Initiative “Water and sanitation are a human right! Water is a public good, not a commodity!” COM(2014) 177 final.Google Scholar
European Parliament. (2014). Follow Up to the European Citizens’ Initiative Right2Water. European Parliament resolution of 8 September 2015 on the follow-up to the European Citizens’ Initiative Right2Water (2014/2239(INI)). P8_TA(2015)0294.Google Scholar
Fattori, T. (2011). Fluid democracy: The Italian water revolution. Transform, 09/2011, 99–111, www.transform-network.net/en/yearbook/journal-092011.html.Google Scholar
Fattori, T. (2013). The European citizens’ initiative on water and ‘austeritarian’ post-democracy. Transform 13/2013, pp. 116–22, www.transform-network.net/journal/issue-132013/news/detail/Journal/the-european-citizens-initiative-on-water-and-austeritarian-post-democracy.html.Google Scholar
Hall, D. and Lobina, E. (2005). The Relative Efficiency of Public and Private Sector Water. London: Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU) and University of Greenwich.Google Scholar
Hall, D. and Lobina, E. (2008). Water Privatisation. London: Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU).Google Scholar
Hall, D. and Lobina, E. (2012a). Water Companies and Trends in Europe. Brussels and London: Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU) and EPSU.Google Scholar
Hall, D. and Lobina, E. (2012b). Conflicts, Companies, Human Rights and Water: A Critical Review of Local Corporate Practices and Global Corporate Initiatives. London: Public Services International Research Unit.Google Scholar
Harvey, D. (1996). Justice, Nature, and the Geography of Difference. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Hendriks, J. (1998). Water as private property: Notes on the case of Chile. In Boelens, R. and Dávila, G. (eds.), Searching for Equity. Assen, The Netherlands: Van Gorcum, pp. 297–310.Google Scholar
Hoogesteger, J. and Verzijl, A. (2015). Grassroots scalar politics: Insights from peasant water struggles in the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Andes. Geoforum, 62, 13–23.Google Scholar
Hoogesteger, J., Baud, M. and Boelens, R. (2016). Territorial pluralism: Water users’ multi-scalar struggles against state ordering in Ecuador’s highlands. Water International, 41(1), 91–106.Google Scholar
James, W. (1977[1909]). A Pluralistic Universe. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
L’acqua. (2013). “ICE per l’acqua diritto umano in Europa – Spot con Stefano Rodotà, Lella Costa, Ascanio Celestini,” www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b4NmB7IWaI&feature=youtu.be.Google Scholar
Lawson, T. (2015). “Reversing the tide: Cities and countries are rebelling against water privatization, and winning,” www.truth-out.org/news/item/32963-reversing-the-tide-cities-and-countries-are-rebelling-against-water-privatization-and-winning.Google Scholar
Lesske, K. (2015). “The role of civil society organizations in promoting participation and accountability in transnational water politics: A case study in Europe.” Freiburg, MA, Thesis Global Studies Programme, Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg.Google Scholar
Limon, R. (2013). La presión social saca el agua de la directiva europea de privatizaciones. El País, July 1, 2013, http://sociedad.elpais.com/sociedad/2013/07/01/actualidad/1372702820_342386.html.Google Scholar
Limon, R. (2014). Organizaciones ciudadanas y partidos lanzan un pacto por el agua pública. El País, August 23, 2014, http://ccaa.elpais.com/ccaa/2014/08/23/andalucia/1408786978_205688.html.Google Scholar
Lobina, E., Kishimoto, S. and Petitjean, O. (2014). Here to Stay: Water Remunicipalisation as a Global Trend. Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU), Multinational Observatory and Transnational Institute (TNI), London, Paris, Amsterdam, www.tni.org/files/download/heretostay-en.pdf.Google Scholar
Mirosa, O. and Harris, L. (2012). Human right to water: Contemporary challenges and contours of a global debate. Antipode, 44(3), 932–49.Google Scholar
Parks, L. (2014). Framing in the Right2Water European Citizens’ Initiative. Paper prepared for presentation at the ECPR general conference, September 3–6, 2014, Glasgow.Google Scholar
Schultz, J. (2001). “Bolivia’s war over water: The dispatches in full.” The Democracy Center On-Line, http://democracyctr.org/bolivia/investigations/bolivia-investigations-the-water-revolt/bolivias-war-over-water/.Google Scholar
Schlosberg, D. (2004). Reconceiving environmental justice: Global movements and political theories. Environmental Politics, 13(3), 517–40.Google Scholar
Seters, P. van, and James, P. (2014). Global social movements and global civil society: A critical overview. In James, P. and van Seters, P. (eds.), Globalization and Politics, Vol II: Global Social Movements and Global Civil Society. Los Angeles: SAGE, pp. vii–xxx.Google Scholar
Spronk, S. (2007). Roots of resistance to urban water privatization in Bolivia: The “new working class,” the crisis of neoliberalism, and public services. International Labor and Working-Class History, 71(1), 8–28.Google Scholar
Steinfort, L. (2014). “Thessaloniki, Greece: Struggling against water privatization in times of crisis,” www.tni.org/en/article/thessaloniki-greece-struggling-against-water-privatisation-times-crisis.Google Scholar
Swyngedouw, E. (2004). Globalisation or “glocalisation”? Networks, territories and rescaling. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 17(1), 25–48.Google Scholar
Tinson, A. and Kenway, P. (2013). The Water Industry: A Case to Answer. London: New Policy Institute and UNISON.Google Scholar
Wainwright, H. (2013). “Resist and transform: The struggle for water in Greece,” www.redpepper.org.uk/tapping-the-resistance-in-greece/.Google Scholar
Wenz, P. (1988). Environmental Justice. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Zacune, J. (2013). Privatising Europe: Using the Crisis to Entrench Neoliberalism. Amsterdam: Transnational Institute.Google Scholar
Zwarteveen, M. and Boelens, R. (2014). Defining, researching and struggling for water justice: Some conceptual building blocks for research and action. Water International, 39(2), 143–58.Google Scholar
- 4
- Cited by