Water democracy - reclaiming public water in Asia: collection of essays by reclaiming public water (RPW) network

The essays present examples of ongoing struggles against water privatization and commercialization as well as inspiring examples of people-centered public water management from across Asia
29 Apr 2009
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The collection includes the following four case studies from India:

  1. "Struggles against failing privatisation, for a people-centred model - Case of Bangalore, Karnataka" (Pg 21), describes a citizen-led campaign against water privatisation that was being pushed by International Financial Institutions such as the ADB.
  2. "Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiatives, under Decentralisation in Kerala", (Pg 25), using the example of Erimayur village illustrates how RWSS initiatives were implemented in Kerala by local panchayat institutions with support of local CSOs, under a World Bank supported project, at a fraction of the cost of what the State Govt used to spend earlier and with much better overall results.
  3. "Countering Water Privatisation in Mumbai: Evolving a Public - Public model", (Pg 27), describes the on-going efforts of the citizens of K-East Ward, Mumbai, led by the "Mumbai Paani Network" in evolving a people owned model to drinking water supply which would be cheaper and more effectively managed, as opposed to a private operator model pushed by the funder World Bank, involving a French consultancy firm, Castalia.
  4. "Solution for the Water crisis - Democratisation, not Privatisation! - Promising Stories from Tamil Nadu" (Pg 30), describes the results of a unique "Democratisation of Water" experiment undertaken by the TN Water Supply and Drainage Board (TWAD), in which nearly 153 village panchayats worked on improving drinking water availability with a very significant savings in cost, and at far lower operating and maintenance expenses.

The RPW network promotes progressive public water models and other alternatives to water privatisation. You can read more about the network at the following links: link 1 and link 2

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