Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, March 23:

Prakash Amatya, Nepali delegate to the international conference on the Second Alternative Water Forum that ended in Geneva yesterday, showed Nepal’s solidarity to the idea that right to water is a human right.

Talking to The Himalayan Times, Amatya, who is also the secretary general at the NGO Forum for Urban Water and Sanitation, today said over 1,200 participants from different countries concluded that each person should get at least 50 litres of water per day.

The final declaration stated: “Water has to be excluded from the arena of trade and market laws, particularly from multinational or bilateral trade agreements and from international financial institutions.”

“The participation was fruitful in different ways. We learned that involvement of private sector that come to earn money by selling water as commodity often fail in equitable water management,” he said.

Amatya presentation a lecture on the involvement of civil society in Kathmandu valley’s water supply reform process. He was the only participant from Nepal.

Many, including a former minister, were denied visa to attend the meet.

He also said the participation also provided him an opportunity to share the burning issue of water supply reform process, which basically is the introduction of management contract to private parties in the distribution of water brought from the Melamchi Valley.

In Asia, privatisation of water distribution in Philippines and Indonesia have turned out to be a failure while Brazil remained a success story where the public sector played instrumental role in water distribution.

“The role of public sector in water distribution is every where noted as it does not overlook the need of water and the capacity of the poor people to buy water,” he said.

The conference mainly focused on the right to water as a basic human right, water as common good, collective financing of access to water, on democratic management fo water at all levels.