Water as public good
Second public event of the zajednicko(org) network.
7 Dec
Date
Thursday, 7. dec
Lecturer
/
Time
18h
Program Language
Serbian
Location
Entrance
FREE!
About the panel
Participants of the panel Nana Pilavić (Jedan grad jedna borba, Sarajevo), Vladimir Simović (Centar za politike emancipacije/ Levi Samit Srbije, Beograd) i Predrag Momčilović (Zajedničko-org / Organizacija za političku ekologiju „Polekol“) will share there local research and experiences in the battle for clean and accessible water, after which we will discuss the tendencies tof the privatization of sources and water supply as well as the alternative forms of ownership and management of water resources.
By the end of 2002, United Nations have declared water as “a social and cultural asset”. From that time until today, all over the globe, with the neoliberal privatization invasion of this valuable natural resource, many battles are under way for the return of water resources under public administration.
In our region, water supply is still largely in the hands of local utility services, but a sharp campaign against often objectively inefficient and non-functional public companies announces the turning of these services to market logic.
We are witnessing daily quality degradation with reduced availability, followed by an additional increase in prices for final users. Instead of improving the management of strategic resources in the public interest, more and more initiatives are developing for the public-private partnerships and outsourcing, with private capital turning the game to its advantage, making democratic control over vital resources increasingly difficult. As a useful concept for the regulation and management of natural goods there is the commons or social property goods. Without the pressure, the market and the neo-liberal state the social goods are managed by the community; the community benefits by meeting its common needs; the community is nurturing the common for its own good and for the benefit of future generations.
Zajedničko(org) is a network of organizations, initiatives and individuals who in their work deal with preserving and improving of social goods in legal, economic and organizational terms through research, public advocacy and development of public policies as well as various educational and informative programs.
Activities of the network in this and next year will include a number of public events and programs – lectures, panels, podcasts, as well as campaigns and research and advocacy projects and initiatives.
The realization of the activities of the network is supported by Heinrich Boell Stiftung and the Open Society Fund.