Past Events

This second JustWaterFutures online event brought together a panel of academics, activists and experts who critically evaluated the recent report on The Economics of Water by the Global Commission on the Economics of Water.

They delved into the Global Commission’s proposals for water governance and the challenges they pose from a water justice perspective. Panelists: Margreet Zwarteveen – IHE Delft & University of Amsterdam. Alex Loftus – King’s College London. Dante Maschio – People’s Water Forum. Meera Karunananthan – Carleton University & Blue Planet Project. Leo Heller – Former UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation. Chair: Lyla Mehta – Institute of Development Studies, UK & Norwegian University of Life Sciences.

• Léo Heller, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Water and Sanitation
• Isadora Cruxên, Senior Lecturer in Business Politics and Development, Queen Mary University of London.
• Marcos Helano Fernandes Montenegro, Communications Director, ONDAS – National Observatory of the Rights to Water and Sanitation
• Edson Aparecido da Silva, Executive Secretary, ONDAS – National Observatory of the Rights to Water and Sanitation

In this event, we explore the Global Commission’s proposals for water governance from international law, physical science and a water commons citizens’ perspectives and ask what these mean for water justice, especially for the poorest and most marginalised.

Panelists: Henry Thomas Simarmata: Lawyer and negotiator for the United Nations Declaration on Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) Bruce Lankford: Professor Emeritus of Irrigation and Water Policy, University of East Anglia Marcela Olivera: Water Commons Organiser, Cochabamba, Bolivia and Blue Planet Project (BPP)

In this webinar, Professor Pryke explores how financial logics, actors, and instruments shape large-scale water infrastructure, drawing critical insights from the Californian desalination experience.

The talk offers valuable perspectives for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers engaged with water futures, infrastructure finance, and environmental governance, and report on how a strong local activist coalition from Huntington Beach in California argued that their community does not need the water and that there were cheaper, more ecological water alternatives to a plant that would primarily benefit private equity firms and banks like JP Morgan, that Desal will hurt families and local businesses, that Desal is “poison for climate, ocean life, and clean water supplies, that Desal would increse water bills – through a 50-year take-or-pay contract.