Photo: Campero at the protest for the human right to water outside the Legislative Assembly of Mexico City, June 9.

Mexico City-based Blue Planet Project organizer Claudia Campero has tweeted, “COMDA [Coalition of Mexican Organizations for the Right to Water] requires clear info on changes in private sector participation in water services in Mexico City.”

“Faced with the risk of ‘fast track’ approval [of initiatives that could promote this private sector participation and violate the right to water], organizations from COMDA mobilized this past Monday [June 9] against the legislature.” To help draw people together for that protest, Campero tweeted, “Mobilization Monday at 12 p.m. against ALDF [Legislative Assembly of Mexico City] to demand they don’t vote on the Water Law before it has even been published in the Gazette!”

Global Voices explains, “In Mexico City, the water management model is being discussed in the state legislature as a result of six initiatives to reform the city’s water laws presented during the past few months. …Academics and civil organizations have issued opinions in various forums, though there have been no formal spaces for deliberation of the initiatives. Neither has the initiative announced by the head of state in March, the so-called ‘Law for Water and Water Sustainability’, been publicly disclosed despite the rush in passing it.

“The decentralization of the Water System of Mexico City, the increase and change in the private initiative, the determination of rates, and the incorporation of the human right to water, are only some of the topics covered in the initiatives. …Because water is a highly technical and specialized topic — although fundamental as a human right — it is little known and receives little attention from most of the public.

The article notes, “[The initiatives] potentially violate the human right to water, [so a broader coalition needs to] join the discussion and dissemination of information on a subject that concerns us all and directly impacts everybody.” In terms of a timeline, “According to the media, the initiatives were to be decided in the first extraordinary period (June 9-10), although according to some notes, the final discussion was postponed until the end of June in the second extraordinary period.”

The full Global Voices article can be read here.