NGOs call for international peacekeeping force to deal with water disputes

A SUMMIT on the world’s water crisis has opened with a proposal for an international peacekeeping force to deal with future conflicts over water and calls for massive donations to rebuild water systems in poor nations.

Participants also hotly debated the developing world's growing reliance on bottled water bought from private companies instead of on public water systems which some call a form of privatisation.

About 10,000 protesters marched to the Mexico City convention centre where 11,000 delegates and representatives of about 130 countries met to discuss ways to improve water supplies for the poor. Opponents claim the meetings are a cover for privatisation.

Some protesters marched past rows of helmeted riot police chanting "Governments understand, water is not for sale!"

Loic Fauchon, president of the non-governmental group the World Water Council, called on the forum to provide massive donations to rebuild water systems in the poorest nations and largest cities.

"A lot of poor people are leaving their countries to go to rich countries," he said.

"Isn't it preferable, isn't it cheaper, to pay so that these people have water, sewage, energy, to keep open the possibility for them to stay in their (own) countries?"

He suggested the creation of a peacekeeping force modelled after the UN "blue helmets" but said: "We don't want to override national governments, we just need a force that will take over in cases of water conflicts."

Forum organisers said they weren't pushing privatisation, but rather better water management.

"Nobody is talking about privatising a resource that is something inalienable, sovereign," said Mexico's Environment Secretary Jose Luis Luege.

Still, he said, he strongly supported the idea of granting concessions for specific water projects to private firms.

Mr Luege noted that the biggest problem is bad drainage, water pipes and a lack of wastewater and drinking-water treatment, causing waterborne illnesses that he said would kill an estimated 3,900 children before the end of yesterday alone.

Mr Fauchon said that in many developing countries, some residents get by on as little as 20 litres of water a day.

While outright privatisation of public water systems has been a hard sell since 2000 when mass protests in Bolivia over rate increases forced out private water companies the private sector earns much more now by selling bottled water to people in developing countries who often don't have drinkable tap water.