United Nations

Various UN agencies provide invaluable information on the state of water resources and promote safe water and sanitation initiatives. However, be wary of the 'public private partnerships' lurking within. In November 2002, UNESCO announced the signing of a co-operation agreement with the transnational water giant Suez. Recent declarations from Suez put the emphasis on public service not the profit potential - just who are they trying to fool?

Home of the World Water Assessment Programme, pooling the resources of 23 UN agencies. See below to access the Programme's comprehensive World Water Development Report presented at Kyoto in March 2003.

Executive Summary of the World Water Development Report.

The site for the International Year of Freshwater 2003.

Statistics from the United Nations Environment Programme.

The World Health Organization's health and sanitation database.

Anti-privatization

Australian Right to Water campaign.

US civil-rights group Public Citizen.

Visit the Blue Planet Project on the Council of Canadians' site, which aims to co-ordinate international anti-privatization efforts - with extensive links.

Friends of the Earth International.

Digs the dirt on water transnationals.

Read the cogent report 'The Great Water Robbery' here.

Check out Operation Water Lords at the Canadian Polaris Institute's site.

A report on the The First People's World Water Forum

Two recent books worth reading: the impressively researched Blue Gold: The battle against corporate theft of the world's water by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke (Earthscan 2002) and the more polemical Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit by Vandana Shiva (Pluto Press 2002).

Big Dams

A wealth of research from the World Commission on Dams.
The best campaigning site on the subject, courtesy of the Berkeley-based International Rivers Network.

Conservation

The Australian Conservation Foundation presses for better local water management.

www.greatlakesdirectory.org Useful US site that covers a multiplicity of issues.

www.idrc.ca/waterdemand/ Canadian Government-funded initiative to look at ways of reducing water demand in regions of scarcity.

www.rain-water.org The Japanese group People for Rainwater Utilization with outreach in Bangladesh.

www.rainwaterharvesting.org/ A multitude of stories and strategies from India.

www.waternz.co.nz Industry initiative concentrating on water quality in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Some useful general sites

www.waterobservatory.org Overview of current debates by the US Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.

www.thewaterpage.comWith an emphasis on sustainable development.

www.worldwater.org Data culled from Peter Gleick's authoritative biannual reports on the world's freshwater.