On Monday, JUFJniks gathered with dozens of coalition partners and elected officials for a historic moment: the Baltimore City Council passed a charter amendment banning the privatization of the city’s water resources.
For more than 2 decades, our city’s government has ignored public opposition and flirted with the idea of privatizing our city’s water. Residents of Baltimore city know our broken water system needs more regulation, compassion, and accountability if it is going to begin serving us. Selling the rights to our city’s water to the highest bidder would give us exactly the opposite.
This fight isn’t over yet. While Mayor Pugh appeared at Monday’s press conference to express her support for the amendment, she hasn’t signed it just yet. She has until Monday to submit the proposed charter amendment to the Board of Elections; and then, it goes to the voters.
We must keep fighting to protect the human right to water. Today, we must protect public control over the water resources. Tomorrow, we must fight to make sure that publicly-owned water is affordable to all Baltimoreans. Every human being has an inalienable right to water, and it is about time Baltimore city started treating us that way.