Water is a Human Right! Grassroots Resistance to Corporate Power

Abstract

In this short piece, I seek to explore two main questions: 1) How can communities take control over local governance and shape local economic futures?and2) How can local communities effectively band together to support world-system transformation? I examine examples of transnational organizing around water and, specifically, the National Summit on the Human Right to Water held in Abuja, Nigeria in January 2019. A repeated theme at the Summit was the idea that privatization is a threat because the narrative of the profit-based solution of privatization is at odds with the idea that people—and their human right to basic needs like water—come before profit. Privatization is a threat to human rights everywhere,and as climate change progresses resources will become even more scarce, with more of a push from corporations seeking to control and commodify water. One of the most powerful short-term results of this summit, therefore, was how it served as a space forglobalsolidarity buildingaround the human right to water.

Keywords

• Water
• Transnational Social Movements
• Human Rights
• Alter-globalizations