THE PEOPLES WATER FORUM

Who we are

The People’s Water Forum is the coordinating space for Water Justice Movements from around the world.

We fight for Water Justice in all its international, national, regional and local forms and manifestations. We raise the voices of communities and defenders of water as a common good and human right in the face of the corporate and financial capture of water.

A bit of history

The coordination of the International Water Movement began in 2006 with the organization of the Alternative World Water Forums (FAMA), an open meeting space that seeks, among other objectives, to deepen reflection on and democratic debate of ideas, facilitate the exchange of experiences and the generation of alternatives and the articulation of actions by civil society movements.

Beginning in 1997, the World Water Council has organized the World Water Forum every three years, an international meeting that brings together private organizations and public institutions, with the prominent representation of large multinational corporations that privatize and commodify water and intensify the practices of dispossession and transposition of watersheds, among others.

The World Water Council is a think-tank founded in Marseilles in 1996. Its 358 members include large private companies and their representatives (Aquafed, Suez, Coca-Cola and Nestlé among others), international financial institutions (World Bank), governments and United Nations organizations (UNESCO, UNDP). The debates organized by the World Water Council are neither plural nor democratic, nor do they respond to the common interests associated with water. This is why Water Movements have been coming together for more than two decades to create a plural and democratic space, the FAMA.

Since 2003, the FAMAs have contributed to solidifying the articulation of civil society and Water Movements. We organized the Mexico FAMA in 2006, the Istanbul FAMA in 2009, the Marseille FAMA in 2012, the Brasilia FAMA in 2018 and the Dakar FAMA in 2022.

Year after year, FAMA after FAMA, we have realized that the Alternative World Water Forum is no longer an alternative space, but the Forum that our peoples, communities, societies and governments need. The democratic quality and understanding of water as a human right and vital common good harbors a greater representativeness that shapes us as the People’s Water Forum.

Our Members

The PWF is made of up the following organizations:

Africans Rising
African Water Commons Collective (AWCC), South Africa
Africa Water Justice Network (AWJN)
Agua para Todxs, México
Asociación Comunitaria Unida por el Agua y la Agricultura, El salvador
Asociación Sostenibilidad, Equidad y Derechos Ambientales -Enda Colombia 
Blue Planet Project (BPP), International
Blue Community Switzerland
Blue Community Berlin
Coalición de Organizaciones Mexicanas por el Derecho Humano al Agua y
Corporación Ecológica y Cultural Penca de Sábila, Colombia 
Corporate Accountability and Public Participation (CAPPA), Africa 
End Water Poverty, International
European Water Movement (EWM), Europe
Food and Water Watch, North America 
Fundación Abril, Bolivia
GRÜNE LIGA e.V., Germany
Ingeniería Sin Fronteras (ISF), International 
Inicijativa Pravo na Vodu (Right to Water), Serbia
Internacional de Servicios Públicos (ISP), International 
KRuHA (People’s Coalition for the Rights to Water), Indonesia
Oakland, Institute, California
Observatorio Nacional de los Derechos al Agua y Saneamiento (ONDAS), Brazil
Plataforma Acuerdos Público Comunitarios de Las Américas (PAPC), Latin America
Red Agua Pública (RAP), Spain
Red Ecuménica del Agua – Consejo Mundial del Agua,  International 
Red Vigilancia Interamericana para la Defensa y Derecho al Agua (Red VIDA),
Latin America
Transnational Institute (TNI)