(18 Mar 2006)
1. Wide shot of exterior of building holding alternative water conference
2. Various of conference
3. Shot of Danielle Mitterrand with another participant
4. Wide shot of podium
5. SOUNDBITE (Spanish): Maria Cruz de la Paz, Mazahua indigenous leader:
"They must respect life, water is the life for everyone. They must stop jailing and killing those who defend our right to water and to life."
6. Mid shot of audience
7. Mid shot of Mitterrand greeting indigenous woman
8. Cutaway photographers
9. SOUNDBITE (French): Danielle Mitterrand, French activist and widow of former French president Francois Mitterrand:
"I read his (Mexican President Vincente Fox's) declaration on the newspaper, we're taking note of it and now we are going to ask him what are the effective measures he intend to take in order to make happen what he just announced. Is it only publicity? Which I don't think so because I still have faith in words. Anyway, we are going to ask him to put to work what he promised or at least to make all the efforts to make it happen."
10. Mid shot of official Fourth World Water Forum
11. Various of children looking at bottling and purification techniques at Fourth World Water Forum
12. Poster of the forum
13. SOUNDBITE (English): Charlotte Akoth, delegate from Kenya
"Water and sanitation are the most important parts of life. We didn't know how to treat water so the rise of typhoid and other diseases was there."
14. Various of children from all over the world
15. Wide shot of UNICEF representatives with children
STORYLINE:
Activists on Friday organised an "Alternative Water Forum" in Mexico City, less than a mile from the convention centre where the official 4th World Water Summit is being held.
Activists accuse the official event of serving as a cover for companies that want to privatise water services.
Among the protesters who participated in the alternative forum were many residents of low-income neighbourhoods in Mexico City who are sometimes involved in fistfights over water-truck deliveries: housewives who can no longer bear the stench of untreated sewage flowing beside their homes - indigenous Indians whose water is being diverted to supply big cities - farmers whose lands are scheduled to be flooded by hydroelectric projects.
Fighting for water is an attitude that might seem strange in developed countries, where water flows at the twist of a tap. But it isn't nearly as accessible in the developing world.
"They must respect life, water is the life for everyone. They must stop jailing and killing those who defend our right to water and to life," said Maria Cruz de la Paz, a Mazahua Indian. She marched alongside 10-thousand protesters on Thursday, outside a convention centre where the International Fourth World Water Forum is being held.
Also in attendance at the official World Water Forum was French activist Danielle Mitterrand, who greeted attendees and spoke to supporters outside the alternative conference.
Meanwhile, UNICEF invited children from all over the world to teach them about water purification techniques and to explain to them the importance of water.
Charlotte Akoth, who was invited to the Forum from Kenya, said "we didn't know how to treat water so the rise of typhoid and other diseases was there".
Representatives of some 130 nations attended the World Water Forum to debate ways to bring more water to the poor. Similar past efforts have failed.
The poor pay vastly more money to private corporations for their water today than they did when the first global water forum was held in Marrakech, Morocco, in 1997.
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