Topics of the Day

• Introduction of the Group and Facilities
• Learning partnership: Water
• Overview: Water as a Human Right and Water-Politics
• Privatization

Summary by the participants

–         Introduction of the programme

–         Chair-circle game with yes/no

–         Presentation about the facility, dividing activities among the participants of the group and establishment of code of conduct.

–         Presentation of the training programme key-points: Level of content in Ecological, Social, Economic, Political terms and Level of pedagogy, methodologies and group activities

–         Synopsis of the Grundtvig learning partnership: explanation about the partnership and related aims, meetings, working tools, individual agendas, best practice examples, open tasks and dissemination. The last phase (of dissemination) includes writing a guidebook with introduction, theory, agendas, best practices, all pedagogical approaches

–         Wish and worries game, about what can participants expect and improve.

–         Introducing the cooking team, their activity – not part of the project, just collaborating

–         Presentation of project entitled “Water is life”: water availability, clarifying water types (blue water, green water), water use in agriculture (in terms of irrigation, percentage of water used in some countries), industry (cooling towers for energy production), domestic use, sources of water (surface and groundwater), virtual import/export of water between countries, water scarcity and water stress (where do this problems have a significant impact), what major issues affect North and South hemisphere, economic water scarcity (countries with water resources but no infrastructure to manage and distribute water), ending with the relation between water scarcity and climate change (proposed water deficits in 2030 throughout the world).

–         Presentation about the topic “Water pollution and ecosystem disruptions”: threats to human water security, safeguarding sustainable access to adequate quantity of water. Among the topics that drew attention were non-native fish and loss of biodiversity.

–         The debate about water privatisation started with an innovative method of discussion called “the fishbowl” which proved to be very appreciated by most of the participants bringing some interesting questions for new forward opinion sharing. It involved a real case study about water privatisation in Bolivia, and how the government was obliged to privatize water distribution to benefit from IMF funds, mostly affecting the poor people due to the raise of water prices. The participants played the following roles: the Bolivian Government, Moderator, Poor Inhabitant, Water Companies, Protestors Coordinator and IMF representative (International Monetary Fund).

–         “The right to water, the global water industry, and current free trade negotiations”, a presentation lead by Markus Henn (representative from Wasser in Bürgerhand), which taclked the main problems related to water privatisation and how water rights were introduced. It was divided in several parts, the first one embraced the human right to water and its many stages for securing water as a right in UN countries. The access to drinking water in the world (developed countries vs developing countries), “rich” countries water problems (cut-offs in water distribution), access to toilets worldwide (which countries need to improve the access and which to look for know-how) were actively discussed in this first part. The second part focused on the role of the state and companies towards water privatisation, where to choose public or private supply, several cases were introduced, such as parts of a UN special rapporteur (important key dates towards water resources and water supply definition as a public right and the shift in private investment in water supply, clarifying the motives for IMF to recommend privatisation for different countries and their subsequent positive or negative conclusions about the implementation), which are the private global tap water suppliers (Veolia, Suez water, Thames Water and Saur), its failed investment promises, rebound effects, corruption, the increasing awareness of people in defending their rights and changes in water distribution (remunicipalisation in various countries and legislation applied in The Netherlands and Greece). Afterwards, the global bottled water suppliers (Nestlé Water, Coca-Cola and Pepsico) were exposed (which are the most important and negative impacts of groundwater exploitation in India by Coca-Cola) and references in the struggle against the bottle companies (movies and organizations). To complete the presentation, on-going trade negotiations were explained, its principles (most favoured-nation treatment, national treatment, market access and domestic regulations, taking in account the degree of liberalisation). Several trade agreements were discussed (TiSA, TTIP and CETA) regarding the principles stated above.

–         The organising team kindly asked our opinion about the day in order to make improvements for the following days receiving generally favourable reviews and underlying issues such as: the many useful information received (sometimes maybe overwhelming) that many participants who are teachers or researchers can use it at their own turn within their work, the positive aspects about the fish-bowl exercise which can also be implemented by the participants in their own working environment.

–         Other points mentioned where the utility of creating smaller groups for debates so that more people have the chance to express their opinion and the good support from the organising team who is being there for the participants every step of the way.