Claim Your Water Rights: open call for grant proposals
Having finished 2024 by celebrating members’ wide-ranging Claim Your Water Rights achievements, we start 2025 with yet another success story. In October the Institute of Social Research and Development (ISRD) began the ‘Removing the taboos, removing the barriers’ campaign, working with women’s networks to establish a movement to promote menstrual management and gender equality in Manipur, India. ISRD mobilised over 100 women’s network members, met religious leaders to address menstruation myths, and organised a series of meetings with state officials, including Manipur’s Maternal Health Division and Health Department. As a direct result of ISRD’s mobilisations, menstruation services such as sanitary napkins will now be provided by local services from 1 April 2025.
ISRD’s success demonstrates the transformative power of our Claim Your Water Rights grants and we are pleased to announce that we are now accepting proposals for funding. Only EWP members are eligible to apply. We are particularly keen to receive proposals from members in Asia and Latin America to ensure funds are distributed fairly across our geographic constituencies. We are also keen to receive proposals related to our two newest core campaign themes ‘Feminism and women’s rights’ and ‘Financing and tax justice’.
The deadline to apply for Claim Your Water Rights funding is Wednesday 3 March. Please read our granting guidelines to find our application form and further information regarding our selection criteria. For the latest member updates, please follow EWP on social media. In addition to Facebook and Instagram, you can now find us on BlueSky and LinkedIn.
Join the Claim Your Water Rights task team
It wouldn’t be possible to coordinate Claim Your Water Rights without the support, guidance and expertise of our member-led task team. Our current task team have provided over five years of dedicated voluntary service to EWP, helping ensure our core global campaign remains rooted in local realities and producing exceptional advocacy impact.
Last year the steering committee approved a Terms of Reference (ToR) that formalises the role of the Claim Your Water Rights task team, recognising the group’s significant contribution to the coalition, clarifying its mandate, and defining its selection procedure. This means that we can now recruit new members to the task team in order to strengthen representation and geographical balance. If you would like to serve on the task team and help shape EWP’s global campaigns, please email the secretariat to express your interest.
UN thematic report on water and energy
The Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe water and sanitation Pedro Arrojo-Agudo is calling for contributions to his next thematic report, which will focus on the critical connection between water and energy. Submissions can be made in English, French or Spanish. The deadline to provide input is Friday 28 February.
Water deprivation in Gaza
A recent report by Human Rights Watch, ‘Extermination & Acts of Genocide’, has found that Israeli authorities have intentionally deprived Palestinians in Gaza of access to safe water and sanitation. “Israeli authorities have continued to call for the collective punishment of the population of Gaza, including through cutting off water and other items essential to life”, say Human Rights Watch. “While Israeli authorities have also made statements calling for measures to be taken to specifically target Hamas and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza, authorities’ actions have amounted to cutting off or restricting water and other items essential to life to the whole of the population of Gaza. These measures persisted after the ICJ ruling in January 2024, and subsequent ICJ rulings, ordered Israeli authorities to end the risk of violations of the Genocide Convention.”
CIVICUS-EWP-SWA peer exchange
In October EWP and Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) co-hosted a peer exchange with CIVICUS to highlight how civil society has influenced political candidates and advocated for people’s rights to water and sanitation in various civic contexts. SWA has now published a written summary capturing the key points from members’ presentations.
The exchange is part of an ongoing collaboration between CIVICUS, EWP and SWA. To continue the conversation, we created the ‘Accountability & Activism community of practice, a secure online platform for CIVICUS, EWP and SWA members and partners to trade tactics and share solidarity. If you are not already registered, you can sign up by completing this form.
The Big Decolonisation Dialogue
Water governance expert Euphresia Luseka recently shared her view on how to decolonise development and global health. During an episode of The Big Decolonisation Dialogue podcast, Euphresia said:
“Colonialism manifests itself in various ways and at different scales. There are manifestations of power imbalances and any process of decolonialisation must therefore challenge how these imbalances are produced and sustained. We must challenge neo-colonialism and resist unethical profiteering through monopolistic and exploitative markets, tax abuse, and use of private wealth to undermine democratic governance and public interest […] We can address the balance of power between the ‘saviour’ and the ‘saved’ by adhering to values based on rights, equity, and justice.”
Secretariat updates
Senior engagement officer Sam Taylor announced that he will be leaving End Water Poverty on 6 March after nearly six years with the coalition. Due to his departure, EWP’s general assembly has been postponed. In the meantime Nathalie Seguin will continue as EWP’s acting coordinator, ensuring there is no gap in the secretariat.