The head of the World Bank — which has been pushing water privatization in Lagos Nigeria, and cities around the world for decades — resigned on Monday. And to do what? To jump right through the revolving door to a corporation that profits from privatization.
The same day, the World Bank announced new plans to push all kinds of privatization in Lagos, from transportation to education. But Lagosians and the global water justice community are taking a stand against privatization — as we have for over four years. Water justice campaigners, policy experts, allied organizations, and government officials from Nigeria, the U.S., and around the globe will gather at the end of this month in Abuja, Nigeria, for a global water summit to ensure that corporations and institutions like the World Bank can’t profit from our most basic human right.
By connecting people and strategy from crucial sites for water justice around the world, we’ll chart a path forward for victory in Lagos and for a global campaign advancing the human right to water. We need you to help make this moment a huge success.
From Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Lagos, Nigeria, water corporations are looking to profit from our most basic and necessary right: clean water at affordable rates. And when corporations succeed at privatizing water systems all too often rates go up, workers’ rights are trampled, and cost-cutting measures pad corporate profits while jeopardizing human health and safety.
The summit’s attendees exemplify the powerful relationships you’ve helped us build over the last four years to strengthen the global water justice movement. Not only are we partnering with Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria (ERA) to convene this summit, but we’ll also bring our allies from Flint, Pittsburgh, and elsewhere who bring additional expertise in pushing back against the forces of water privatization.
Allies like Aly Shaw, who has been organizing for public water in Pittsburgh and to hold Veolia accountable for its role in the city’s lead crisis. And Jammu Anand, President of the Nagpur Municipal Corporation Employees Union, who organized to oppose a Veolia privatization scheme in Nagpur, India.
And we need you with us. Join the growing movement for water justice around the world that’s determined to protect the human right to water from corporate control. Add your name.
