On July 28, after years of grassroots pressure, the United Nations’ General Assembly will consider and debate a resolution supporting the right to “safe and clean drinking water and sanitation”.
Maude Barlow, former Senior Advisor on Water to the President of the United Nations General Assembly described the denial of access to clean water as the “most violated human right”. It’s worth recalling some alarming statistics:
1.2 billion people have no access to safe drinking water and 2.6 billion without access to proper sanitation. Every 8 seconds a child dies from preventable water-borne disease. Women and girls are disproportionately affected by the lack of water and sanitation.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights did not explicitly recognize the human right to water and sanitation, allowing member states to reject the existence of these fundamental rights. Climate change has already increased water scarcity and contamination.
Sadly, many states, most notably the U.S., Canada, Australia and England, oppose a resolution establishing the right to water and sanitation. Divisions between the North and South are gro... Read more
