OTC launches new group to protect water for people and the planet, with websites in both English and Spanish
By Jay Walljasper

Our Water Commons, a new program of On the
Commons, has launched its new website, brimming with resources and practical information. The site also appears in Spanish.

Our Water Commons is dedicated to transforming the way we think about and manage water. This life-giving resource rightfully belongs to all of humanity as well as animals and the Earth itself and the group aims to deepen understanding
of commons principles as a framework to guide how water is managed throughout the world.

A number of other organizations are involved with
OWC, including the Vermont Law School, the Blue
Planet Project, the Council of Canadians, and India’s Centre for Human Rights and Law.

The new group was highly visible at both the World Water Forum and the People’s Water Forum in Istanbul last April, working with progressive governments to advance the idea of water as a human right and a commons, which gained positive press internationally.

Two definitive reports have been published in
both English and Spanish:

• “Our Water Commons” by best-selling author and former UN water advisor Maude Barlow, which explains the core principles of the water commons and examines what’s at stake for all of us.

• “Local Control and Management of Our Water Commons:

Stories of Rising to the Challenge” a compilation
of 21 inspiring case studies of people around the
world who have stood up for the idea that water belongs
to us all.

OWC sponsored a seminal meeting of legal scholars and activists at the Wingspread Center in Wisconsin to identify new legal tools and governance structures to protect the water commons. The group works closely with the African Water Network and their
Latin American counterpart, Red Vida, and globally with the Reclaiming Public Water Network to support new initiatives in water commons management, and this year will collaborate with the Indian Institute of Technology on a water management course for engineers and local governments” which can be adapted for lay audiences worldwide.

For 2010, Our Water Commons seeks to educate
and mobilize local governments, public interest
lawyers, water system operators and NGOs in both
the developed and developing world about the necessity of water being treated as a commons. Tools to accomplish this include convening strategic meetings, training courses, applied research, and popular education materials disseminated via new and traditional
media. OTC and OWC are also collaborating
with the Grassroots Policy Project in Milwaukee
to spark awareness of the water commons in policy
decisions.

http://onthecommons.org/protecting-worlds-water