In the municipality of Jamundí, Colombia, local politicians were pushing to privatize the water service provided by public utility ACUAVALLE by waging a media campaign to discredit it. If successful, this would have seriously affected access to water for local people, 94% of whom are on low-incomes. However led by the utility’s union, Sintracuavalle, pressure from local people led to a shelving of a public-private water partnership that would have turned water into a commodity.

For
nearly 20 years, Sintracuavalle (the Acuavalle workers union) has not
only defended its workers’ rights, it has also become a fierce defender
of water as a fundamental human right. Since 2009, it has successfully
helped set up four community water systems based on the principles of
the Platform for Public Partnerships of the Americas, and pushed the Municipal Council to shelve proposals for a public-private partnership to manage water in the municipality.

The
union has achieved political and social standing as a result of its
fight against privatization, and is now part of the political
decision-making process. The union promotes improvements and investments
in the supply of water, which have suffered from cuts, and has
encouraged different social actors to join together to organize and
actively defend water as a fundamental human right.

The campaign
has organized community workshops, discussions with the Municipal
Council and lobbied individual council members. This has raised
community awareness of the importance of keeping water under public
management and inspired other public sector workers worldwide.

This growing network to defend access to good quality public services is being taken forward through a Plan of Action for 2018-2022 with Public Services International (a global trade union in which Sintracuavalle is a member of its executive council) and led by Sintracuavalle and CUPE, the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

“What inspired me most is that this is a success story of a public service union that managed to (re)gain a positive image of its role by embracing the vision of water as a common good and by focusing on building strong partnerships with communities and civil society organizations.” – Lorena Zarate

Would you like to learn more about this initiative? Please contact us.

Or visit sintracuavalle.org

Transformative Cities’ Atlas of Utopias is being serialized on the P2P Foundation Blog. Go to TransformativeCities.org for updates.

The post Jamundi, Colombia: Trade union leads defense of water as a human right appeared first on P2P Foundation.