transform! europe supports the Water Project, organised by the Fundació l’Alternativa, to contribute through debate and reflection to the democratic impulse of decision-making in the management of water by the municipalities, promoting sustainable territorial planning, making use of green energies and proposing new forms of management of commons.
For years, the Fundació l’Alternativa has been working on environmental proposals, mainly focused on the use of alternative fossil energies and on the democratic control over the use of energy sources. In 2014, we undertook a project on carrying energy poverty solutions forwards, with the Barcelona City Council collaboration.
Subsequently, in 2015, also funded by the City of Barcelona, we carried out a new project focused on energy poverty and its impact on mobility in the city.
As the results of debates around these projects, we arrived to the conclusion that it was necessary to work at the local level in defence of the commons, as well on the generation of tasks to fight against energy poverty and to do so on the premise that this would only be possible through the democratic control on the commons. Consequently, in 2016, we carried out a project consisting of preparing a guide on the use of energy, addressed to municipalities, and in 2017 we added an annex to the project about urban planning: building a new culture of territory.
From the considerations emerged in this line of working, it was managed the proposal of aiming the objectives on the need of municipalize the water resource, based on democratic and non-commercialized management. Therefore, this 2018, we started to work on the subject and the Guide "Water, Democratic control by a non-commercialized management" has been developed, along with different social and local actors, addressed to municipalities.
The Guide also comprises audiovisual material and the offer of making the guide presentations to all municipalities that request it. With this great project we intend to contribute to make conscious and promote debates on the defence of commons, and in relation to these, the democratic and participatory control use of water at the local level, focusing especially on the different municipal proposals.
This debate aims to have a direct impact on the city we long for building up and, in consequence, to plan on the base on needs and interests of the majority of the population. To make this possible, we have developed and edited a guide for action and considerations, having the support of experts and social movements, as well as audiovisual material and an alternative agenda of democratic control to fight against speculation with water.
This work is aimed at municipalities, entities and individuals interested in discussing issues related to commons, city planning, non-commercialized management, ecology and the environment, among other matters. It is also aimed at the specialized public, especially at managers who work with environmental subjects.
To achieve this goal, we have created the audiovisual materials and documents, which have been sent to the municipalities. We have made a presentation of the guide that has been followed so much in streaming, as in deferred and in
Environment is not only a matter of a specific region, but of the whole world. Whatever we make in a place has affects the others. In this sense, we have translated the energy guide into French and English, and now we are taking the firsts steps to translate the water guide. All the objectives set have been achieved: making of the guide and audiovisual material (Catalan), advertising on the social networks and websites, presentation of the guide at Barcelona in an act seen via streaming (from which we have also edited a video), and mailing the guide to the Catalonia municipalities with over 3,000 inhabitants.
This project has been organized by the Fundació l’Alternativa in coordination with the Environmental Governance and Territorial Development Center (CST_ according to the acronyms in Spanish), and also the collaboration of the Ateneo Roig, the Barcelona City Hall and transform! europe.