SETA - Organizing to Defend Citizen‘sRight to Water

The water service workersunion SETA, including their rank-and-file leadership, has been doing theimportant work of organizing at the community and municipal level around theright to water. The union holds publicforums raising awareness about the citizen‘s right to water as well asdenouncing the government‘s plan to privatize water.

One of those forums washappened recently in the rural municipalityof San Isidro,Morazan. That day, SETA gathered morethan 200 people in the central plaza of the municipality to talk about water. The forum was coordinated in collaboration withexisting committees in the municipality so as to involve them in the organizingeffort and strengthen their organizing capacity and knowledge on theissue. The activity was filled withparticipations of community leaders, who in the most honest way expressed tothe rest of the community the real need for them to get organized and defendtheir already poor access to water. A priest, who is currently leading thestruggle against the construction of the El Chaparral Dam, said they will doeverything they have to do to stop the construction of this dam. After he spoke a local band from his parishplayed — the band is made up of self-taught rural youth who write their ownsongs about economic and environmental justice.

Following the public forum,SETA members held a meeting with community leaders to create a local water committee,which will coordinate with other committees that have been formed to work as a nationalunified front, protecting the right to water and working to stop the ARENAgovernment‘s efforts at privatization. SETAis replicating this kind of work in municipalities across the country, whilemaintaining their commitment to doing the internal union work of protectingworkers‘ rights. For this year, theyhave the ambitious goal of extending the network of local water committeesacross the country build support for the alternative legislative proposal,which would declare water a universal right.

CISPES has committed toaccompany SETA‘s work of defending the right to water. We are working politically to denounce thisstep in the implementation of CAFTA, and we have committed to raise funds tosupport SETA‘s grassroots organizing work. So far CISPES has contributed $1000 to SETA‘s work, and our goal is toraise $5000 more in 2007.

"Water is not to sell but to defend: Noto the privatization of water!"