COLOMBIA: Campaign Seeks to Make Water a Constitutional Right

By Helda Martínez

BOGOTA, Aug 24 (IPS) - Sixty environmental, indigenous, labour and social organisations in Colombia are carrying out a campaign for a constitutional amendment that would make access to clean water a fundamental right.

The proponents of the initiative have already fulfilled the first legal requirement by collecting some 135,000 signatures, equivalent to five out of every 1,000 registered voters.

But they now face a bigger challenge.

Once the signatures are certified as valid by the Registraduría Nacional del Estado Civil (national registry), the organisations will have to gain the support of 1.5 million Colombians in order for Congress to call a referendum in which voters would decide in favour of or against the proposed constitutional amendment.

The initiative included an awareness-raising caravan along the Magdalena river, which ended Friday when it reached the port of Girardot, 133 km southwest of the capital.

In this country of 42 million, nearly 12 million people have no access to clean water and four million have limited access, i.e. to a public faucet, according to the Defensoría del Pueblo (ombudsman’s office).

Ironically, Colombia is the second country in Latin America in terms of average annual renewable freshwater resources, and seventh in the world, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

But despite the abundance, the governmental Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM) predicts that 69 percent of the Colombian population will suffer from a lack of clean water in 2025.

The non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and trade unions promoting the constitutional amendment point to the privatisation of water utilities, which was authorised by law in 1993, as one of the causes of the problem.

"Of the country’s 349 water companies, 141 are private and 24 are mixed," reports the CENSAT Agua Viva/Friends of the Earth Colombia.

One of the NGO’s researchers, Danilo Urrea, told IPS that "privatisation has significantly driven up the cost of water services, and the granting of concessions to private operators has also given rise to scandals and corruption."

In addition, there has been an attempt to charge a toll for navigating the Magdalena river along the stretch where it flows into the Barranquilla port on the Caribbean coast.

The Magdalena river emerges in southwestern Colombia and runs through 18 of the country’s 22 departments (provinces) for over 1,500 kilometres before reaching the Caribbean.

In the 1970s, 70,000 tons of fish were caught in the river annually, an amount that shrunk to 40,000 in the 1980s, 20,000 in the 1990s and just 8,000 today.

That problem is also on the agenda of the groups carrying out the campaign. "You can't just put an end to public utilities arguing that the state is corrupt. What must be achieved is management of water for the benefit of the population as a whole," said Urrea.

The petition drive to collect signatures in favour of the constitutional amendment was launched on May 1, International Workers’ Day, in several cities around Colombia.

Various actions were carried out in the following two months, mainly organised by young people. This month, during the first forum for water and life in the Caribbean, held in the city of Barranquilla, the caravan set out on the Magdalena river, reaching Girardot on Friday.

One of the country’s most heavily polluted rivers, the Bogotá river, flows into the Magdalena at the port of Girardot. The Bogotá is a dumping ground for chemical residues from the cut-flower industry and tanneries.

This first stage of the campaign is coming to a close with "a positive evaluation," said Urrea. "Even if we are not successful in our attempt to hold a referendum, we have carried out awareness-raising efforts in cities and towns along the river, which was part of our overall objective. And of course we will continue working."

Minister of the environment, development and housing Juan Lozano recently stated in a televised debate that he will put a priority on recuperating the country’s water resources, and that maintaining a public water service and preserving the environment were aims that he shared.

If a referendum is held and voters come out in favour of a constitutional amendment, Colombia will be following Uruguay's lead.

In late 2004, that small South American country became the first nation in the world to introduce a constitutional amendment declaring water resources a public good and prohibiting the privatisation of water and sewage services.

Source: IPS News.net

Fiesta artística por el agua

CARACAS, 18 jun (Tierramérica).- Pintura, escultura, fotografía, música, literatura y performance se integrarán en el Festival del Agua, que se realiza del 17 al 23 de junio en 11 municipios del sudoriental estado venezolano de Bolívar.

Así lo informó a Tierramérica Jocelyn Salinas, una de sus organizadoras, en el estatal Instituto de las Artes de la Imagen y el Espacio. "Colocamos el agua como protagonista del arte, fuente de inspiración y medio de expresión en la zona bañada por nuestros ríos Orinoco y Caroní, cuyas represas producen dos tercios de la electricidad en Venezuela", destacó Salinas. La población participará en concursos de fotografía digital y cuentos infantiles. El alemán Julius Popp --que utiliza el agua para generar sonidos e imágenes--, el fotógrafo holandés Bob Schalkwijk y el argentino Martín Molinaro, con performances y talleres, acompañarán a los artistas nacionales en este festival.
*Fuente: Inter Press Service.

Havana

Earlier this month Al Jazeera focused on the city life of Havana, Cuba. The programme looks at the Cuba (for the tourist) and Cuba (for the Cuban).

Any comments are welcome

The Videos can be found below:

Al Jazeera 48: Havana

Rwandan Film Festival

As part of 'The Fabulous Picture Show' on Al Jazeera the Rwandan Film Festival Organisation was featured. At present there is only one traditional film theatre in the capital Kigali however the Hillywood phenomena (named after the landscape of the country) spreading across Rwanda has enabled previously untouched areas of the nation to witness emerging homegrown films. They have endeavoured to illustrate all aspects to Rwandan culture and history other than the international image of genocide. I believe that this organisation offers a great example to other nations where national cinematography is often neglected and doesnt reach a wide enough audience.

The message of this travelling army of film makers throughout the hills of Rwanda can only be positive as the reception so far has been exceptional with local showings producing crowds of up to two thousand people. By using an inflatable makeshift giant screen, the films can be shown practically anywhere. The important step to this, other than the local opportunities for Rwandans to watch films in the native Kinyarwanda, will be the undoubted international coverage this initiative will produce.


More information can be found on Al Jazeera including the short film about the Rwandan Film Festival as well as on the organisations website. If there are similiar initiatives across the world especially in Latin America it would be great to mention them in a comment.

Links

Al Jazeera: The Fabulous Show - Video
Rwanda Film Festival.org
Rwandan Cinema Centre
BBC News: Rwandans flock to 'Hillywood' films

BRAZIL: Promoting a World Social Forum in Amazonia

RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 30 (Tierramérica).- The World Social Forum could be held in South America's Amazon region if the candidacy of the northern Brazilian city of Belém to host the massive civil society event is successful.

The proposal is included in a document addressed to the WSF International Council, set to meet in June in Berlin to choose the site of the 2009 event.

"We want Belém to be the point of convergence of the nine Amazonian countries," Adilson Vieira, secretary of the Amazonian Working Group, a network of 623 organizations and social movements, told Tierramérica.

Its geographical location and its role in the global climate, as well as its great biological and social diversity make the Amazon an ideal place for the Forum, says Salete Camba, representative of the Paulo Freire Institute in the WSF Council.

*Source: Inter Press Service.

Environmental Film Series

BUENOS AIRES, Jun 11 (Tierramérica).- Argentina's Environmental Secretariat has launched a film series and a screenplay competition centered on the environment.

An official with the secretariat, María Laura Spina, told Tierramérica that both initiatives seek "to raise awareness and reflection about environmental problems," targeting adolescents and young adults ages 13 to 30.

The 1st Environmental Film Series -- presented Jun. 5, on World Environment Day, by the Secretariat and the National Institute of Film and Audiovisual Arts -- will screen national and foreign documentaries in theaters in Buenos Aires and six other provinces this month.

With the slogan "Your gaze can change reality", the 1st Contest of Environmental Screenplays has a deadline of Oct. 5. The prizes include a computer, cash, and a collection of books on ecology.
*Source: Inter Press Service.

Original Article: Tierramerica

Trees for the Capital

MEXICO CITY, Jun 11 (Tierramérica).- Some 100,000 trees of native species will be planted in the next couple months as part of a reforestation program for the Mexican capital.

The trees will be planted on 100 hectares of deforested and degraded land in an effort to improve their functioning as suppliers for the aquifers from which a great part of the water consumed in the city is extracted.

"In addition to reforesting, this initiative generates environmental education, because it is mostly carried out by volunteers -- and we already have a thousand signed on," Emiliano Robles, reforestation operations coordinator with the non-governmental group Naturalia.

According to studies by the Autonomous National University of Mexico, in the capital, where about nine million people live and more than 3.5 million vehicles are in circulation, there is progressive deforestation and, among the trees remaining, 15 percent are old and 30 percent are diseased.

Original Article: Tierramerica
Photo Credit: Destination360