New steering committee representatives for Asia
End Water Poverty is pleased to welcome two new representatives to its steering committee following Asia’s regional election:
- Purna Chandra Misra, member of FANSA India and director of the Indian Institute of Youth & Development (IIYD), will be Asia’s main representative.
- Bhawana Sharma, member of FANSA Nepal and director of the Environment & Public Health Organization (ENPHO), will be Asia’s alternate representative.
We’d like to thank the Freshwater Action Network of South Asia (FANSA) for conducting the election. The secretariat looks forward to working with Purna Chandra and Bhawana over the next two years. The secretariat would like to thank our outgoing Asia representatives Fazlul Hoque and Masroor Ahmad for offering their wisdom, experience, and guidance over the years. It has been a pleasure working with them both.
Report from the World Water Forum
Our acting global coordinator Nathalie Seguin attended the World Water Forum in Bali, Indonesia from 22 to 25 May. On Friday 24 May EWP and ONGAWA co-hosted a side event at the Spanish Pavilion with the Spanish ambassador and the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation to launch the ‘Leave No One Behind’ policy brief. After a screening of the #HearingTheUnheardHRWS short film, Patricia Silva López from MUDEM A.C. (a Mixtecan local organisation) and Eusebio Pérez Aguilar from from APAMCH (an association of indigenous water operators in Chiapas) gave in-person testimonies, creating a dialogue with government officials and public water operators. The policy brief was well received, with recognition that community recommendations are crucial to reducing inequalities in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) access. You can read the policy brief in English, French and Spanish. Alternatively you can read an executive summary in English, French and Spanish if you’re short on time.
The policy brief was also presented by Simavi’s Sandra van Soelen at a separate session titled ‘Hearing the Unheard: Water Justice for Humans and Nature’. During this session Amaka Nweke shared the Network of Water Rights Initiative’s remarkable success in advancing people’s rights to water in Enugu, Nigeria, before Fermin Reygadas from Cántaro Azul and Redes del Agua highlighted the effectiveness of public-community partnerships in increasing water and sanitation access in dispersed rural communities in Latin America. Meanwhile a powerful all-women panel including Nathalie Seguin, Edith Guiochon from Coalition Eau, Sabiha Siddique from Simavi, and Hadeel Faidi from the Palestinian Water Authority shared experiences from Mexico, France, India, and Palestine on realising the human right to safe water for the most marginalised communities.
Other members – including Freshwater Action Network of South Asia (FANSA), Kenya Water and Sanitation Civil Society Network (KEWASNET), and Water Integrity Network (WIN) – also participated in the World Water Forum. If you want to learn more about events in Bali, Nathalie has written a blog that considers the future of the World Water Forum and reflects on the critical importance of civil society participation.
People’s Water Forum solidarity statement & Road to Bali exchange
While civil society were largely sidelined at the World Water Forum due to prohibitive entry fees, water rights defenders faced severe suppression at the People’s Water Forum (PWF). Civil society experienced intimidation, harassment and repression with police and paramilitary groups disrupting events and blockading local groups in the Oranjje Hotel. End Water Poverty published a statement in solidarity with water defenders asserting their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association, amplifying local groups’ demands. We have since added a further demand to our statement that water defenders in Indonesia should face no further surveillance, persecution or fear of retribution following the PWF.
This disruption affected EWP’s plans: only the Feminist Dalit Organisation (FEDO) from our three-member delegation was able to attend the PWF after the Indonesian government issued last-minute changes to visa requirements. Ahead of the PWF, EWP members shared stories of resistance in the struggle for water justice: from countering privatisation in Mexico to exposing extractive contamination in Thailand and defending civic space and the right to water in Zimbabwe. The exchange sparked a great discussion. After presentations from Fermin Reygadas (Cántaro Azul), Shaan Bajaj (Manushya Foundation), and MacDonald Munyoro (National Association of Youth Organisations), numerous members took the mic, asking questions and exchanging solidarity. You can watch the exchange in full on YouTube.
