Water petition

Westport Labour Councillor Keith Martin is urging people to support a
trade union campaign entitled "The Right2Water petition" to ensure
that water services throughout Europe remain in public ownership.

The trade union IMPACT is asking its members and their friends,
families and communities to sign an online petition, which aims to
gather 30,000 signatures in Ireland. The 'right to water' campaign
calls on the European Commission to recognise water as a human right,
exclude water and sanitation services from EU internal market rules,
and legislate to ensure water and sanitation assets remain in public
control even where private companies operate them.

The campaign has grown amid concerns that Irish water services could
be privatised in the future following the current restructuring
programme.

The petition is the first citizen's campaign of its kind under the
EU's European Citizen Initiative (ECI), a new legal tool introduced as
part of the Nice Treaty, which forces European institutions to
consider issues that win the necessary public support. The Right2Water
petition aims to attract a million petition signatures throughout the
EU and was launched in Ireland at the IMPACT Biennial Delegate
Conference in May.

According to the Cllr Keith Martin who is a member of the IMPACT trade
union "Water is a human right, not a commodity to be bought and sold.
We must ensure that efforts to conserve and improve water quality such
as the establishment of Irish Water do not become the gateway
organisations to privatisation. In Boliva there were riots over water
when the water supply was privatised and the price of water was pushed
up and up until the ordinary citizens rose up in protest. The West of
Ireland is blessed with one of the highest rainfalls in Europe and we
must protect this asset from both pollution and exploitation by
speculators."

The petition can be signed at http://www.watertreaty.org.