Blue October is an international month of action to challenge corporate control of water and to protect water as a shared natural resource available to all.

1. Take Back the Tap! Celebrate the 35th Anniversary of the Clean Water Act, one of our most important environmental laws, by calling on Congress to invest in clean, affordable public tap water for future generations. More info: vkaplan@fwwatch.org or 202-797-6556

Stop the Mining of Sacred Tribal Land!

We need your immediate support to stop the proposed copper mining that would irreversibly desecrate lands sacred to Apache and other tribes and devastate the environment and health of the people in Superior, Arizona, and many other neighboring Arizona communities.

Background
On July 24, 2007 Senators Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and John McCain (R-AZ) introduced bill S. 1862, the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act of 2007, in the US Senate. A related bill, H.R. 3301, was introduced in the House of Representatives by Representative Pastor (D-AZ) on August 1, 2007,.  The House bill is co-sponsored by Representatives Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Harry Mitchell (D-AZ), and John Shadegg (R-AZ). The proposed bills would, among other things, convey federally-owned land known as Oak Flat, Devils Canyon, and Apache Leap near Superior, Arizona, to Resolution Copper Mining, a subsidiary of a multi-national mining corporation. The land sought by Resolution Copper is believed to have one of the largest copper deposits in the world and is worth an estimated $65 billion. That land, however, contains sites and artifacts that are of deep spiritual, cultural, and historic significance to the Apache and other tribes in the region. Further, Apache Leap is a breath-taking butte where Apache lookouts were once posted to warn of attacks by the US Cavalry and leapt to their deaths rather than be captured.

One of WILPF's campaign initiatives is to pressure the UN Human Rights Council to create a binding convention on Water as a Human Right. We've created a petition to send to the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights demanding implementation and accountability of the Human Right to Water.

Click here to sign our online petition! 

Download and collect signatures here!

The Water Campaign is also working to Boycott the Bottle! Bottled water is expensive, wasteful and toxic, and not so pure! Say no to bottled water.

The Tanzania Gender Networking Programme this morning issued a strong statement condemning profit hungry companies that came to Aftica to reap profits from our natural resources such as water. The statement signed by TGNP Executive Director Ms. Usu Mallya mentioned Biwater Gauff as being a one such case, saying such trends were quite appalling and that the dispute currently under litigation at the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) was far more a human rights issue than an investment dispute.

The WILPF Save the Water Campaign calls for the United Nations to pass a binding Convention on the Human Right to Water. This letter, of which WILPF is a signatory, was sent to to the Human Rights Council, urging the High Commissioner to support the Human Right to Water. 

The Blue Planet project commissioned a legal analysis of the Green Cross campaign for a UN Convention on the Right to Water. While the Green Cross campaign does include some progressive elements, we maintain that it would undermine, not strengthen, protection for the international right to water. You can read the summary, or download the full-length report here . Click here to read important documents from the Project ...

by Mike Tidwell

Strange Weather, Future Katrinas, and the Coming Death of America's Coastal Cities