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dam-l Opening ceremonies at water forum disrupted/LS
This is about the water forum in the Hague (which I attended and will
report on later....)
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Agence France Presse
Naked demonstrators protesting at a dam project in the Basque country and
proposals to expand private control over water supplies disrupted
ceremonies here Friday to open a forum on the world's water crisis.
An undressed couple scrambled onstage as Mahmoud Abu-Zeid, president of
the World Water Council, was making a speech to kick off the second World
Water Forum.
On their backs were written "Itois SOS - Stop dams", a reference to a
scheme in Spain's Basque country, and "Don't privatise water".
They were eventually hustled away by police as a third demonstrator
clutched onto a balcony, unfolding a red flag on which was written "No to
privatization of water" and flung leaflets into the assembly hall.
Another protester scaled a side wall of the chamber, shouting "stop
privatisation of water".
The forum's president, Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander, appealed for
the action to stop, saying: "This is a forum for normal people, for normal
discussions. I ask you to sit down."
The two bursts of protests caused a 45-minute disruption to the inaugural
programme, which led off with singing and dancing to draw attention to
water problems.
Police said eight people took part in the protest. They were accredited as
members of a British non-government organisations but spoke Spanish, a
Dutch organisation official, Marcel van Heuvel, said.
The six-day forum gathers 3,000 delegates from all sectors, who will stage
hundreds of workshops and round tables on water pollution, conservation
and distribution.
In parallel, there will be the World Water Fair, gathering UN agencies,
fund managers, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and multinationals,
which will be given a chance to show off products and answers to water
problems.
The climax of the event will be a two-day ministerial meeting, next
Tuesday and Wednesday, in which representatives from 150 countries and
delegations will adopt a declaration on the future water resources.
Although their pledge will not have legal teeth, organisers hope it will
give a vital political impetus to sensible management of water supplies as
the planet's population expands and its environment degrades.
Already, a billion people do not have access to safe water, and two
billion do not have proper sanitation.
AFP 2000 All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or distributed. All reproduction or
redistribution is expressly forbidden without the prior written
agreement of AFP.
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Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
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