COLOMBIA
Initiative for Water as a
Human Right Sinking in Congress
By Helda Martínez
BOGOTA (IPS) - Colombian civil society
organisations gathered more than two
million signatures to ask Congress to
hold a referendum on a constitutional
amendment that would make access to
water a fundamental human right.
But Congress gutted the draft referendum
bill this week by eliminating the clause
on water as a human right.
The popular initiative "no longer
exists, it was blocked," Rafael
Colmenares, spokesman for the Committee
in Defence of Water and Life, told IPS
after the Tuesday, May 18 session in the
lower house of Congress that approved
major modifications in the bill
presented by the civil society groups.
The legislative debate on the referendum
will continue. But its proponents say
the vote that Congress will propose will
be stripped of its original purpose: to
declare that water is an inalienable
right.
"We are not advocates of the referendum
that will be voted on," said Colmenares,
after two and a half years of efforts to
gather signatures and raise awareness on
the issue.
"The situation is serious," said the
activist, pointing out that nearly 30
percent of rural Colombia lacks water
and sewage services.
And in the capital alone, 300,000
families a year have their water
services cut off at one time or another
because of failure to pay their bills.
In the meantime, "the Andean highlands
are granted in concession to foreign
mining companies" that use enormous
amounts of water, while the country
suffers droughts that alternate with
flooding aggravated by deforestation and
erosion accentuated by overgrazing.
In September 2008, the authorities
validated 2,039,812 signatures in the
petition calling for a referendum, and a
month later, the draft referendum bill
was introduced to Congress.
Since then, national and regional
organisations of indigenous people,
peasant farmers, environmentalists and
workers have held numerous
demonstrations in support of a
referendum, and have carried out a
continuous campaign to educate the
public on why access to water should be
considered an essential human right.
But on its way through Congress, the
bill was modified by the committee on
the environment and natural resources,
and the changes were approved this week
in the lower house of Congress.
The text of the citizens' initiative was
considered "idealistic and nonviable,"
and lawmakers argued that it was
impossible for the state or private
companies to assume the cost of
providing households with a basic
minimum of water free of charge, as
established by law in South Africa, for
example.
The legislators also decided that
accepting that water is a fundamental
human right would jeopardise water
sources located on private property, to
which citizens would have to be given
access when they exerted their rights.
The legislature's solution was to
include water in the category of
economic, social and cultural rights,
"which renders the whole exercise
meaningless," according to Colmenares.
Congress modified the draft referendum
bill even though the Constitutional
Court declared in February that it could
not change popular initiatives.
"The Constitutional Court ruled that in
the case of citizens' initiatives,
Congress can only vote yes or no,"
Colmenares noted.
"That applies to the water referendum,
as we repeatedly pointed out to the
legislators," he added.
Lawmakers from opposition parties like
the centrist Liberal Party and the
leftist Alternative Democratic Pole
(PDA) set forth the same argument.
PDA congressman Germán Reyes told IPS
that legislators from the governing
right-wing Party of the U "are looking
for ways to sink the referendum, because
the policy at the highest levels of
government is to privatise water through
deals that put it in the hands of
transnational corporations. That's why
the referendum annoys them.
"They're not pleased with the idea of
people exercising their fundamental
rights, or with the protection of water
sources that are being handed over to
multinational corporations," he added.
"But they're not being open about it to
the public, simply shooting it down;
instead, they're using all sorts of
delaying tactics."
Advocates of the principle of water as a
human right also point to such a
strategy, as a result of which they say
any further debate on the referendum in
Congress is merely an empty gesture,
because the end is a foregone
conclusion.
They are also certain that the
Constitutional Court will strike down
the bill when it is finally approved by
Congress, and thus the referendum
itself, because of the modifications
introduced by the legislators.
"If the Constitutional Court takes a
coherent stance, it won't approve it,"
Reyes said.
The current legislature ends Jun. 20 --
not enough time for the bill to make it
through the remaining debate in the
lower house and two in the Senate. And
in terms of the vote, nothing will
change in the new Congress to be sworn
in on Jul. 20, because the Party of the
U and the right-wing Conservative Party,
its ally and the most radical opponent
to declaring water a human right, will
have a comfortable majority.
Proponents of the referendum are now
considering alternatives.
Activist Rafael Espinel told IPS that
one possibility would be "collecting
another 1.5 million signatures," because
with that amount of support from the
population, Congress would not have to
approve the referendum proposal.
Other ideas are a boycott of water and
sewage bills, mass demonstrations or a
symbolic popular vote.
"The legislative process no longer has
any meaing, and we have to look for
other ways to mobilise to revive the
referendum," Espinel said. "But we are
not backing down from this challenge." |
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