Since 2003, the People’s Water Forum (PWF) has convened every three years as a parallel event to the World Water Forum (WWF), providing an alternative space for water justice movements and pro-public water advocates to unite.

The WWF, now dominated by international financial institutions and some of the world’s largest corporations, promotes market-based approaches to water management, which exacerbates the global water crises and further restricts access for poor communities. In contrast, the PWF unites those who champion equitable and public access to water, challenging the commodification of this vital utility.

This year, with Indonesia hosting the 10th World Water Forum in Nusa Dua, Bali, from May 18-24, 2024, the PWF scheduled its meetings for May 21-23 in Denpasar, Bali. However, the PWF’s peaceful pre-event discussion at a hotel in Denpasar was brutally interrupted on Monday, May 20, by members of a local group called Patriot Garuda Nusantara (PGN). They accused the PWF of distracting from the 10th WWF, vandalised the PWF’s banners and billboards, and even physically assaulted the forum’s participants.

The same violence occurred on the morning of Tuesday, May 21, when uniformed men accompanied by other individuals stormed the PWF 2024 venue, tore down event banners, laid siege to the venue, and prevented PWF members, including Pedro Arrojo, the UN Special Rapporteur on Water, from entering or leaving the premises.

In a statement reacting to the repression, the Our Water Our Right Coalition (OWORAC) joined other water defenders to condemn the attacks, describing them as a violation of the right to free speech, peaceful assembly, and association, all of which the Indonesian government is obligated to protect under international human rights laws.

A part of the statement noted that “the interference with the PWF is part of a troubling pattern, with similar incidents occurring during the 2018 IMF and World Bank annual meeting and ahead of the G20 Summit in 2022.” OWORAC thus urged the Indonesian government to put an end to all forms of intimidation and violence targeting the PWF, carried out through state officials, paid agents, and paramilitaries.

Despite heavy repression, the People’s Water Forum convened online sessions between May 21 and 23.

Gideon Adeyeni, CAPPA’s Programme Officer, had observed surveillance of his social media by agents from Indonesia in the days preceding the pro-people conference. Denied a visa, he was unable to be in Bali but joined the PWF’s virtual sessions as a panelist.

During his intervention, he shared experiences of how OWORAC is striving to build people’s power to resist water privatisation. He described OWORAC’s strategy for building people power as involving, essentially, allyship building and consciousness raising.

“In building the people’s movements, that is people power, we try, firstly, to build allyship, and secondly, we conscientise. By conscientisation, I mean that we try to make people understand the roots of the crisis that we face. We want people to understand that our public taps stopped running not because there is no longer water underground or in our rivers, but because the government is no longer funding the water sector as it should.

“As for allyship building, we ensure that we work closely with other organisations that have an interest in guaranteeing access to drinkable water for all. That includes trade unions. We work closely with frontline communities too,” he said.

Oluwafemi Akinbode, the Executive Director of Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), in his prerecorded video message to the PWF, noted: “the ignoble role that global financial institutions, especially the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), continue to play in this process, using different entrapment means to hand over this most important amenity, that is water, to private corporations.”

He urged all water defenders to remain steadfast in resisting the schemes of those attempting to commodify access to public water in our individual countries, continent, and across the world.