From the 30th January 2016 to 11th March, we have collected a list of more than 51,000 signatures in support of having the inalienable right to water written into the Constitution. We handed this list to the National Assembly on 11th March. Our Citizens initiative therefore has to this date the backing of almost 3 percent of the voting population. Even after handing in the petition signatures, we have continued our efforts by working on a positive pressure and discussing the matter with water and legal professionals. We have also engaged public authorities covering the area of water, political parties and representatives of citizen initiatives in an open discussion.
The objective of our actions was to be clearly written into the Constitution that water and water land is a natural public good, over which no-one can acquire ownership rights; that everyone has the right to drinking water; that the water supply of the population cannot be owned by private companies in any legal-formal way, and that the provision of the water supply to the public is a service which should not generate profit and that the water supply of the population has the absolute precedence over economic exploitation in the case of the water crisis or drought or other crises, and that the water resources be managed sustainably, with thoughts on our posterity.
The Civil Initiative for Slovenia and Freedom is operating without any financial support, because we are not organized as a non-governmental organization. We are an ad-hoc group of individuals from different parts of Slovenia, with different skills and of various professions, ages, ideological and religious beliefs. As a Civil Initiative, we are acting in line with three basic properties of water: without the smell of political parties, without the taste of religion and transparent in purpose. As individuals, we obviously have our differences and different points of view and approaches to many things. What we do have in common is that we care what happens to our drinking water, so we put aside our personal views and beliefs. We have also connected with other groups and individuals throughout Slovenia and together we are creating the story of writing down the right to drinking water into our Constitution. Our following goal is to monitor and participate in changing the legislation within the next 18 months, before the Parliamentary elections which will take place in 2018.
Members Civil Initiative for Slovenia and Freedom
Brane Golubović, Romea Žbogar Roshni, Dušan Trušnovec, Afrodita Hebar Kljun, Dejan Ogrinec, Ewa Jenko Gunnčar, Boris Turk, Ana Jug, Marjeta Pogačnik, Irena Kovačevič, Marjan Kogelnik
