Oscar Olivera is head of the Coalition in Defense of Water and Life, which successfully resisted the 1999 attempt to privatize the water supply of Cochabamba, Bolivia. In 2001 he won a Goldman Environmental Prize.

Mr. President:
The greatest survival challenge facing humans is clean water. Though enough water exists, the lack of its efficient distribution has influenced business to see it as a "market" that can create profits from the universal human right to have sufficient water each day. I would like to ask you to create a fund to solve the world's water problems.

Your country spends much of its money supporting and fomenting war, which only creates death and desperation for the world's children, women, and elderly. Channel the money your country spends on arms and war into the bodies of all the world's children by guaranteeing them enough water for life.