by Margaret Mair

Created on: June 30, 2008   Last Updated: March 23, 2009

In 2002 the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights stated that "the right to water clearly falls within the category of guarantees essential for securing an adequate standard of living, particularly since it is one of the most fundamental conditions for survival." Without water we die. Without clean water we die more slowly.

At minimum, everyone needs access to enough water to prevent dehydration and disease. To be safe and health-giving, drinking and cooking water must be free from microbes and parasites, and from dangerous chemicals and other hazards, seen or unseen. To be used and used well it must be available, affordable, and reliable.

Children are the most affected by the lack of clean water, their small bodies more vulnerable to the effects of germs, parasites and dangerous chemicals. Access to clean water gives them the chance to live healthy lives, a right we already consider theirs, and at much lower cost than that of making a sick child well again.

What will it mean if access to clean water is defined as a basic human right? If people are legally entitled to fresh water, then it is no longer a commodity that others can choose to provide or withhold. It must be provided to all, regardless of circumstances, without discrimination, now and in the future. And since the right would be internationally held and recognized countries would have to work together to provide adequate water to everyone, within and outside their borders.

Recognition of water as a basic human right obligates governments to take concrete steps to protect those rights for individuals and communities, to show respect for those rights in their own actions, to protect the rights that already exist, and to provide a framework in which those rights can be achieved by all. This includes finding ways to make sure water supplies are not polluted by industrial or agricultural waste or sewage. It also includes helping individuals and communities develop and maintain clean water supplies and learn how to best manage the water available to them.

Perhaps the most important thing is that anyone who is deprived of clean water, even those whose economic or social position rob them of the power to take action on their own, will have a basis on which to seek a solution for their problems, and governments will have an obligation to support them in their efforts to do so.

For more information:

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The UN and Right to Water (PDF)

Information on Water:
http://www.freedrinkingwater.com
http://www.inf oforhealth.org/pr/m14/m14chap1.shtml#top
http://www.c ircleofblue.org/waternews/science-tech/all-the-water -in-the-world/

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