WASHINGTON, DC SEPTEMBER 26TH 2007: Maryland State Delegate Ana Sol Gutierrez joins an international delegation to San Salvador to support the Women’s March for Water on the morning of October 5th. The delegation is headed by former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, President of Prosperity and Democracy, LLC Allen Andersson and former Ambassador to El Salvador and current President of the Center for International Policy President, Robert E. White
Salvadorans from all over the country will congregate in San Salvador and will march to the National Congress to urge the government to make access to water a priority on the national agenda.

According to Ambassador White, “El Salvador, along with Haiti, owns the worst record in the western hemisphere in access to safe, clean drinking water. Women and children, particularly those in rural areas, are some of the most affected by the problems. They are forced to spend hours a day collecting water, and hauling heavy buckets back and forth for cleaning and cooking.” Salvadorian-born MD State Delegate Ana Sol Gutiérrez said, “I am proud to join CIP and the brave women and children who oppose the privatization of basic, life-sustaining resources –especially water. We must all fight misguided government proposals that exacerbate extreme poverty for many, while further concentrating the wealth of a few Salvadorians.”

The delegation is sponsored by the Center for International Policy and is part of the official launch of the Blue Democracy Campaign, an initiative carried out in close coordination with Salvadoran civil society organizations to promote access to water as a human right.