Safe and clean drinking water and sanitation are a human right by IPS, Toronto Star, Council of Europe & agencies 11:34am 28th Jul, 2010   Oct 2010    UN united to make the right to water and sanitation legally binding. (OHCHR)    In a historic meeting of the Human Rights Council, the UN affirmed yesterday by consensus that the right to water and sanitation is derived from the right to an adequate standard of living, which is contained in several international human rights treaties. While experts working with the UN human rights system have long acknowledged this, it was the first time that the Human Rights Council has declared itself on the issue.    According to the UN Independent Expert on human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque, "this means that for the UN, the right to water and sanitation, is contained in existing human rights treaties and is therefore legally binding". She added that "this landmark decision has the potential to change the lives of the billions of human beings who still lack access to water and sanitation."    On 28 July 2010, the General Assembly took a first critical step by recognising this fundamental right. However, that resolution did not specify that the right entailed legally binding obligations. The Human Rights Council – the main UN body competent in the area of human rights – in a resolution tabled by the Governments of Germany and Spain, with support from dozens of countries, has closed this gap by clarifying the foundation for recognition of the right and the legal standards which apply.    "I wholeheartedly welcome this resolution from the Human Rights Council, which signals a global agreement that access to water and sanitation are no longer matters of charity," Ms. de Albuquerque said. "The right to water and sanitation is a human right, equal to all other human rights, which implies that it is justiciable and enforceable. Hence from today onwards we have an even greater responsibility to concentrate all our efforts in the implementation and full realisation of this essential right."    July 28, 2010    UN General Assembly declares access to clean water and sanitation is a human right.    Safe and clean drinking water and sanitation is a human right essential to the full enjoyment of life and all other human rights, the United Nations General Assembly declared today, voicing deep concern that almost one billion people worldwide do not have access to clean water.    The 192-member Assembly also called on United Nations Member States and international organizations to offer funding, technology and other resources to help poorer countries scale up their efforts to provide clean, accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation for everyone.    The Assembly resolution received 122 votes in favour and zero votes against, while 41 countries abstained from voting.    The text of the resolution expresses deep concern that an estimated 900 million people lack access to safe drinking water and a total of more than 2.6 billion people do not have access to basic sanitation. Studies also indicate at least 2.2 million children under the age of five die each year and 443 million school days are lost because of water- and sanitation-related diseases.    Today’s resolution also welcomes the UN Human Rights Council’s request that Catarina de Albuquerque, the UN Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation, report annually to the General Assembly as well.    Ms. de Albuquerque’s report will focus on the principal challenges to achieving the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation, as well as on progress towards the relevant Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).    The MDGs, a series of targets for reducing social and economic ills, all by 2015, includes the goals of halving the proportion of people who cannot reach or afford safe drinking water and halving the number who do not have basic sanitation.    In June, Bolivia"s draft resolution indicated that global water rights would "entitle everyone to available, safe, acceptable, accessible and affordable water and sanitation."    Maude Barlow, chairwoman of Food and Water Watch, who previously sat as a senior adviser to the United Nations General Assembly on the water issue, said Wednesday"s vote was groundbreaking.    "We"re absolutely thrilled," said Barlow, who also serves as national chairwoman of the Council of Canadians. "This is a historic day and I think every now and then, the human species advances somewhat in our evolution and today was one of them."    The draft resolution declared that countries unable to provide water to their residents should be assisted through "international co-operation and assistance," essentially calling for rich countries to give foreign aid to any government that says it doesn"t have the means to meet its citizens water rights.    July 27, 2010    ‘Historic’ chance to ease human suffering, says Canadian activist, by Linda Diebel. (Toronto Star)    A United Nations vote to recognize water as a basic human right is a “historic” chance for the global community to ease human suffering, according to a Canadian activist in the thick of a last-ditch lobbying effort.    At a time when 2 billion people live in water-stressed regions, the UN resolution declares that “safe and clean drinking water and sanitation (are) a human right.”    “We’re running out of water and the crisis is getting worse,” Maude Barlow said Monday from New York, on the eve of a vote expected as early as Wednesday at the UN General Assembly.    “If we don’t make a statement that we don’t want entire populations left behind, what does it say about us? About our humanity?”    Barlow, former senior adviser on water at the UN and chair of the Council of Canadians citizens group, is optimistic the resolution will pass by majority vote.    At a time when 2 billion people live in water-stressed regions, the resolution declares that “safe and clean drinking water and sanitation are a human right.”    Barlow says no government wants to publicly support the increasing privatization of water and the concept that it can be withheld from people who can’t afford to pay. But she says support for endless studies or a guarantee only of “access” to water would essentially do just that.    The resolution is sponsored by 32 countries, with Bolivia playing a key role. A decade ago, civil unrest erupted in Bolivia’s third-largest city, Cochabamba, after the water supply was privatized and put under the control of a multinational corporation. Even the water in people’s rooftop cisterns was taxed.    Although the rioting led to control of water in that area eventually falling back in the hands of a public utility, corporate control of water is increasing around the world.    Time is critical, says Barlow, because the world is facing “a double whammy”: continued lack of water through poverty and the growing physical and ecological crisis that deprives the world of clean water.    The global water crisis is getting steadily worse with reports of countries from India to Pakistan to Yemen facing depletion. The World Bank says that by 2030, demand for water will outstrip supply by 40%. This may sound just like a statistic, but the suffering behind that is absolutely unspeakable.    Nearly three billion people on our planet do not have running water within a kilometer of their home and every eight seconds, somewhere in our world, a child is dying of waterborne disease.    April 2010    UN report stresses benefits of greater funding for water and sanitation projects.    Funding commitments for water and sanitation declined as a share of overall development aid over the past decade despite strong evidence that making the two services available to communities offer lower health-care costs, raise school attendance and improve productivity, according to a new United Nations report released today.    “Neglecting sanitation and drinking water is a strike against progress,” said Maria Neira, UN World Health Organization’s (WHO) director of public health and environment, at the launch of the UN-Water Global Annual Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) report. “Without it, communities and countries will lose the battle against poverty and ill-health,” she said.    The report stressed that improved access to sanitation and water produces economic benefits that range from $3 to $34 per dollar invested, increasing a country’s gross domestic product (GDP) by an estimated two to seven per cent.    “Unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and the lack of hygiene claim the lives of an estimated 2.2 million children under the age of five every year. Of these deaths, 1.5 million are due to diarrhoea, the second leading contributor to the global burden of disease,” said Dr. Neira. “The impact of diarrhoeal disease in children under 15 is greater than the combined impact of HIV and AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis,” she added.    Aug 2009 (IPS)    The growing commercialisation of water - and the widespread influence of the bottling industry worldwide - is triggering a rising demand for the legal classification of one of the basic necessities of life as a human right.    "We definitely need a covenant or [an international] treaty on the right to water so as to establish once and for all that no one on earth must be denied water because of inability to pay," says Maude Barlow, a senior adviser to the President of the U.N. General Assembly, on water issues.    "We’ve got to protect water as a human right," she said, pointing out that the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva would be the most likely venue to propose such a covenant. But it would be best, she added, if it were ratified by the 192-member General Assembly.    "We need at the United Nations more than a human rights remedy," Barlow told IPS. "We need a plan of action for the General Assembly."    By 2030, up to 4 billion people could be living in areas suffering severe water stress, mostly in South Asia and China.    A study commissioned by the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP), released in March, said the global market for water supply, sanitation and water efficiency is worth over 250 billion dollars - and is likely to grow to nearly 660 billion dollars by 2020.    Barlow said the Council of Canadians, which she heads, is working with countries promoting the right to water constitutionally.    A plebiscite in Uruguay, held four years ago, led to a referendum resulting in a constitutional amendment singling out water as both a human right and a public service to be delivered on a not-for-profit basis.    A Colombian group called Ecofundo has collected two million signatures in a plebiscite that is expected to lead to a referendum on the right to water.    A special U.N. rapporteur on the human right to water was established by the Human Rights Commission in March 2008, with a three-year mandate, to assist member states to identify the scope and content of the human right to water and sanitation.    Many municipalities worldwide are reversing the privatisation of their water services. The City of Paris, for example, is bringing its water services into the public sphere for the first time ever.    "We are also successfully introducing the notion of water as a public trust in political jurisdictions, asserting public control over this vital resource," Barlow said.    However, she noted, "we must be ever vigilant as new forms of private control are being advanced: water markets, water banking, water trading and water speculation are all on the horizon for those who would impose a market model of water allocation in the place of the public trust doctrine."    The U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) termed the existing priorities in global water services as "water apartheid," reporting that there was enough water and financial resources to meet the current needs.    Still, it suggested that fully implementing existing legal obligations on the human right to water would go a long way to adjusting funding priorities toward water for the poor.    Some companies, such as Connecticut Water and PepsiCo have adopted a human right to water policy.    Barlow said the international community should be watching the "superpowers" who are now looking outside their borders for water supplies - as they did for oil. She said China is already constructing a pipeline to funnel water from the Tibetan Himalayas.    March 2009 (The Globe and Mail)    Climate change and growing populations is raising the very real possibility of widespread water shortages, a new report compiled by 24 agencies of the United Nations says.    The warning from the UN is based on one of the most comprehensive assessments the global body has undertaken on the state of the world"s fresh water and was commissioned for use at a major international water conference being held next week in Istanbul.    "Today, water management crises are developing in most of the world," the report says, citing a single week in November of 2006 when there were local news reports of shortages in 14 countries, including parts of Canada, the United States and Australia.    The assessment, called World Water Development Report, says that while water supplies are under threat, the demand for water is increasing rapidly because of industrialization, rising living standards and changing diets that include more foods, such as meat, that require larger amounts of water to produce.    "The result is a continuously increasing demand for finite water resources for which there are no substitutes," it says, predicting that by 2030, nearly half of the world"s population will be living in areas of high water stress.    The UN is worried that disagreements over water in politically unstable areas are increasingly driving conflicts, requiring the development of new security strategies to resolve these disputes. It says the water woes could increase the risk of national and international security threats, pointing to a number of countries that could be vulnerable to conflicts over water resources, including Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, Haiti, Sri Lanka and Colombia, among others.    The report also warns that water shortages are having another unusual effect: They are beginning to constrain economic growth. The report cites a lack of water as a threat to growth in parts of China, India and Indonesia, and commercial centres in Australia and the western United States.    "We have an increasing level of scarcity in a lot of countries," observed Zafar Adeel, the director of the United Nations University"s international network on water.    Population and urban growth are among the reasons the UN agencies worry about water shortages. Every year, the world"s population grows by another 80 million, with most of the growth occurring in urban areas. The report says this means the world will have "substantially more people" living in urban and coastal areas vulnerable to scare water resources.    Another concern is the huge demand agriculture places on water resources. Already, about 70 per cent of the fresh water used by people is for growing crops and raising livestock. The report expresses concern that as more people in emerging economies gain middle-class lifestyles, they will consume more milk, eggs, chicken and beef, "which is much more water-intensive than the simpler diets they are replacing."    The report says that within the next 30 years, there will be "substantial population displacements" due to global warming, and that those affected, whom it terms "climate-change refugees," will need new water and sanitation services.    Another problem is the lack of safe water and sewage disposal. The report estimates that almost 10 per cent of the world"s disease could be prevented with clean water.    Strasbourg, 20.03.2009    Access to water should be recognised as a fundamental human right says Council of Europe.    “Access to water should be recognised as a fundamental human right. A rights-based approach to water would be a very important means for civil society to hold their governments accountable for ensuring access to an adequate quantity of good quality water as well as sanitation,” said the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Lluís Maria de Puig, speaking today ahead of World Water Day on 22 March.    “The challenges to be tackled are numerous: chronic water shortages in the south, floods in the north and problems with water management and quality in central Europe. The continent is still failing to treat more than 50% of its urban water pollution. 41 million people in Europe do not have access to safe drinking water, and 85 million lack access to basic sanitation. Proper water governance that offers sustainable access to water and sanitation is not possible without legislation,” said Mr de Puig.    He made an urgent appeal to his parliamentary colleagues in the 47 member states of the Council of Europe, calling on them to act as “advocates” of the right to water and sanitation: “The right to sufficient quantities of high-quality water that is easily accessible for all population groups needs to be enshrined in our constitutions.”    Mr de Puig ended with a reminder that one of the priorities of his presidency was to establish the right to live in a healthy environment as a human right via an additional protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights. Visit the related web page
	Next (more recent) news item
	Next (older) news item