Did the World Economic Forum "order" governments "to begin rationing water into homes," proclaiming that access to it is not a human right anymore? No, that's not true: As a non-governmental body, The World Economic Forum (WEF) doesn't have the authority to force independent countries to do anything. The materials cited as proof of the claim, from the March 2023 UN Water Conference, say nothing about water rationing.
The story originated from an article (archived here) published by The People's Voice TV on April 12, 2023. Its headline was:
'Water is Not a Human Right': WEF Orders Govt's To Begin Rationing Water Into Homes
The article opened:
As you are no doubt aware, the global elite are making moves to have people 'own nothing and be happy.' The world will be controlled by an authoritarian one-world government and humanity, according to Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum, will be enslaved in a totalitarian system featuring mass surveillance, mandatory vaccinations and desperate servitude.
It continued:
The World Economic Forum and the U.N. have ordered world governments to prepare to ration people's water supply as part of their 'Great Reset' agenda for humanity.
Here is what it looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: The People's Voice TV screenshot taken on Thu May 4 15:32:46 2023 UTC)
The People's Voice TV article was marked as fact checked. But clicking on that to learn more takes the reader to the About page, which says nothing about fact checking. Instead, it discloses that The People's Voice TV is owned and operated by News Punch, LLC -- an entity known for spreading false claims.
The WEF is a not-for-profit foundation that doesn't have the authority to give orders to independent states. It has been a long-term target for conspiracy theorists.
The People's Voice TV claim cited a piece from the WEF website but it wasn't written by the forum's team or affiliates. Representatives of the two nations that organized the 2023 United Nations Water Conference wrote it. Highlighting present challenges, the article described the agenda of the then-upcoming event and talked about water as a "common good." The piece acknowledged that "our global water system is in crisis" and that "billions of people lack access" to water. It described a path forward via better water management practices, not externally imposed extreme limits on household consumption of water.
This article cited by the People's Voice TV mentioned the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, which was scheduled to present its report at the conference. Launched at the 2022 WEF annual meeting, the Commission was not created by the Forum. According to its website, it is "convened by the Government of the Netherlands and facilitated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development." The list of the Commission's members does not include WEF representatives.
The Commission's report did not talk about "rationing water."
The UN Water Conference took place in March 2023 in New York City. Neither its materials nor any news reports from credible media organizations suggested that any "orders" to begin "rationing water into homes" were part of it.
The list of the U.N.'s Sustainable Development Goals does not discuss water rationing either.
As of this writing, the United Nations continues to recognize "access to water and sanitation" as human rights. A search across the WEF website produced zero results for the phrase "water is not a human right" used in the title of the People's Voice TV article.
The People's Voice (formerly NewsPunch, formerly YourNewsWire) has published numerous hoaxes and fake news articles in the past. Their Facebook page "The People's Voice" lost its verification checkmark, according to a 2018 report from Media Matters For America. At the time, Lead Stories reported that YourNewsWire had rebranded itself as NewsPunch by changing its domain name in an apparent effort to evade filtering or blocking. Both sites are registered by a company called The People's Voice.
