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<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\nThe \u201cOur Water, Our Right Campaign\u201d spearheaded by the Environmental Rights Action\/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA\/FoEN) has won the Transformative Cities 2019 People\u2019s Choice Award in the water category.<\/p>\nThe ERA\/FoEN-led campaign in Lagos received the highest votes in the water category on the sidelines of the International Conference on \u201cThe Future is Public\u201d holding in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, which also featured the energy, food and housing categories. Prior to the announcement, the eight finalists debated and discussed opportunities and challenges of transforming local contexts to address global challenges.<\/p>\n
Nominations for 2019 Transformative Cities Peoples\u2019 Choice Awards featured 33 stories from 24 countries where advocates are pushing for radical change and advancing transformation through their community-led engagements. Before being narrowed down to eight, 12 were nominated and announced for voting which commenced on September 10 and ended on October 9.<\/p>\n
The Transformative Cities is an initiative by a group of regional and international organisations that highlights political practices and solutions that can serve as inspiration for others.<\/p>\n
At the ceremony, Deputy Executive Director of ERA\/FoEN, Akinbode Oluwafemi, said: \u201cThis recognition will motivate us to remain resolute in our quest for definitive win in Lagos because we know a win in Lagos will spur groups across Africa in similar conditions to fight on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oluwafemi, who noted that ERA\/FoEN was privileged to work with men and women, young and old, who are determined to challenge corporate greed and grab, explained that the coalition was born in 2014 when the groups learnt that the Lagos State government was nearing conclusion of plans to privatise water.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis development informed the need for civil society groups, trade union groups, and community people who will carry the greatest burden of water privatisation to come together to fight a common cause.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe dedicate this award to the women, the labour activists, opinion leaders, youths, our international allies and several others marching shoulder-to-shoulder with us to resist water privatisation in Lagos, Nigeria and Africa,\u201d he said<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2754,"template":"","class_list":["post-4548","press-release","type-press-release","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erafoen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/press-release\/4548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erafoen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/press-release"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erafoen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/press-release"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erafoen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erafoen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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