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GUEST: Amit Srivastava, Coordinator of the India Resource Center, Director of Global Resistance

More than one billion people on the planet don’t have access to clean water. Nearly 2 billion don’t have adequate sewage and sanitation. These staggering statistics are what delegates to the fourth World Water Forum in Mexico City are discussing. For many years now, the World Bank and other lending institutions pushed the idea that private corporations could efficiently deliver water to communities around the world. According to the New York Times, “private companies have managed to extend water services to just 10 million people, less than 1 percent of those who need it.” Delegates attending the World Water Forum are seeing a major shift in rhetoric away from privitization, and toward local public utilities. The forum is sponsored by private companies like Coca Cola. Meanwhile, outside the forum, tens of thousands of activists are protesting privitization as part of an alternative forum. Last Thursday a march of 10,000 people resulted in clashes between protestors and police.

For more information, visit www.indiaresource.org.