We, the men and women participants of the People’s Forum on Water held on May 3, 2012 in Manila parallel to the Asian Development Bank’s 45 Annual Governor’s Meeting, representing farmers organizations, irrigators associations, rural women, urban poor communities, non-government organizations and advocates, declare our common conviction that water is a right of all people and that anything that hinders the full enjoyment of this right must be vigorously opposed. 

We affirm our collective position that water should remain part of the commons and we reject efforts to commoditize water or place control over it in the hands of the private sector. We consequently ask government to reject policies and programs that promote the shift from communal, shared ownership or public management of water to private control and management of water resources and services.