GENEVA -- Hundreds of activists appealed for a global tax on water and the creation of a "world water parliament" to protect its distribution, at the closing of the Alternative World Water Forum Sunday.
The two-day forum's goal is to "promote the creation of a world public service for water" through a series of concrete measures, said Bastienne Joerchel of a Swiss charity group.
The forum proposed introducing a one-cent tax on water worldwide, which would avoid having to use private funding for the distribution of water.
A global water parliament -- expected to hold its first meeting in Brussels next year -- would establish the rules to assure the equitable distribution of the vital resource.
About 1,200 people from around the globe and 150 non-governmental organizations participated in the forum that opened last Friday, including the former Portuguese president Mario Soares, co-chairman of the meeting held ahead of Tuesday's World Water Day.
The United Nations will launch Tuesday its global campaign called "Water for life," which aims to cut by half the number of people worldwide who do not have access to drinking water by 2015.
The forum also adopted an action plan for the recognition of water as a human right, its use for the common good, and called for public financing and democratic control of the resource.
Riccardo Petrella, a professor at Lugano University in Switzerland, called for water to be excluded from the negotiations at the World Trade Organization on the liberalization of services, and said the World Bank should stop requiring the privatization of water as a condition for granting loans. -- AFPBusinessWorld, MANILA, PHILIPPINES
