Forum debates private sector role in global water supply.

WATER supply; PRIVATIZATION; WATER utilities; DRINKING water standards; WATER consumption; UNITED Nations; HUMAN rights; POVERTY; SANITATION

Reports that the Third World Water Forum, an environmental conference in Japan, is debating whether water should be supplied at a profit. Recognition of the human right to water by the United Nations; Goals of reducing the number of people without access to safe drinking water and sanitation by 2015; Accusation by anti-poverty activists that financial institutions and multinational corporations have tried to hijack the event to gain control over water supplies; Idea of anti-poverty groups that improvements can be made at local levels through redistribution of existing resources rather than the introduction of expensive, large-scale, and high-technology projects.