Wishtank
Is Water a Human Right?
by: Garrett Heaney
“Access to safe water is a fundamental human need and, therefore, a basic human right. Contaminated water jeopardizes both the physical and social health of all people. It is an affront to human dignity.” — Kofi Annan, prior United Nations Secretary-General
... If only the issue of water as a human right was as simple as Kofi Annan’s perspective.
A world where humans have a well defined set of undeniable rights is an important goal for this generation. But aside from rights, the human race has a more dire set of biological needs that it must secure in order to survive. When someone is denied a right, they suffer. When someone is denied a need, they die.
Air, food and water are the most fundamental needs of the human species — and none of these are indicated as absolute rights of the entire population of Earth. If we are going to work towards a future that enables humans to possess certain rights, we must first consider these biological needs as their undeniable foundation.
In this article, we will focus on the concept of water as a human right and whether governments are the most fit entities to provide water, and rights to that water. In our research, we have determined that there is no implicit statement or international treaty that asserts — absolutely — that human beings have a right to water, and we recognize this as a leading symptom of our species’ suffering condition.
On a positive note, we whole-heartedly believe that it is possible to provide safe drinking water, in quality and quantity, to every human on Earth. We also believe that accomplishing this will be a fundamental step towards actualizing all human rights and alleviating global poverty.
The United Nations Committee on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights could not have stated it more clearly:
“Water is fundamental for life and health. The human right to water is indispensable for leading a healthy life in human dignity. It is a pre-requisite to the realization of all other human rights.”
The status quo
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (aka the IUCN or the World Conservation Union) prepared a 60-page report in 2005 that estimated more than one billion people lack safe drinking water and that between 14,000 and 30,000 people die every day from avoidable water-related diseases. These numbers, today, are very bleak, but the projected numbers for the year 2025 are even more severe. The IUCN report estimates that in less than 20 years, two-thirds of Earth’s population will be living with severe water shortages, or almost no water at all. Two of my closest friends just had their first daughter. The projection cited means that before she is an adult, two out of three humans on planet Earth might not have access to drinkable water. I am invested in this research because I don’t want that to be a reality for her.
Nick and Nai’a Rose Wainright
United Nations Millennium Declaration
The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that resulted from the 2000 summit make up — in Wishtank’s eye — the most essential agenda that humanity has to work with today. We find hope in the fact that all 192 United Nations member states have adopted these goals, and agreed to work towards their fulfillment. The year 2003 was identified by the United Nations as the International Year of Freshwater, and member states focused on certain components of the Millennium Development Goal to “achieve environmental sustainability.” These include halving, by the year 2015 “the proportion of people who are unable to reach, or to afford, safe drinking water” and ending “the unsustainable exploitation of water resources.”
The Millennium Development Goals, in their entirety, can be found at http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals.
So, while these millennium goals instill hope, in reality, they are merely mutually accepted goals on paper. These goals are not laws, nor are they binding in any sort of way, nor do they hold nations accountable for their actions or inactions. This is for a very good reason — it is impossible to enforce any such a law. The United Nations is not capable of enforcing that the government of a country provide water to its people, because governments (particularly in the third world) aren’t always capable of providing that water. If they were, there would be no water crises. That is an important realization for all humans — governments are not always capable of solving problems.
Legislative lessons
In research, we reviewed national laws and the constitutions of countries across the world, to determine how successful governments were in both acknowledging a human right to water, and enforcing it. Our findings varied, and rather than creating a comprehensive list of water laws by country, I will refer you to The Water Law and Standards Website — a joint
project of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), located at http://www.waterlawandstandards.org. This is a searchable database of specific water laws by individual country or by region, with the ability to tailor search results to varying degrees of detail, including direct quotations from parliamentary and constitutional frameworks.
What we gained from this research was not a thorough understanding of the legislative measures that governments are taking to provide water to the citizens within their borders. Rather, we learned the general lesson that governments, regardless of their resources or political structure, are not the most reliable or capable entities to provide for human beings in need.
While South Africa’s constitution holds that “everyone has the right to sufficient water and the state must ensure, through reasonable legislation, the realization of this right,” UNESCO reports that 1/3 of the country’s populace still lacks adequate drinking water.
This trend is not unique to South Africa, and is actually quite common across the board. Government laws on water rights, while important for the bigger picture, are often far more valuable to mental consciousness than the physical bodies in need of hydration. A thirsty human can have all the rights in the world, but if there is no water available, and a government lacks the ability to provide it, any law written to protect that right falls short of the ultimate goal.
General Comment 15
The most poignant references to water as a human right is known as “General Comment 15.” General Comments are published by the United Nations and serve as guidelines for member states in the interpretation of human rights treaties and international covenants. General Comments offer advice as to how member states should comply with their obligations under human rights treaties, and outline potential violations of such treaties.
General Comment 15 states clearly that, “the human right to water entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses.”
But even with these Comments, much of the international community either fails to recognize, or lacks the resources to enforce, the human right to water. The IUCN’s 2005 conclusion spells this out clearly:
“The human right to water is not yet explicitly recognised. The human right to water does exist, as water is the most essential element of life. However… this right has not been clearly defined in international law and has not been expressly recognised as a fundamental human right. Rather, a right to water is interpreted as being an implicit component of either existing fundamental human rights, or is expressly included in non-binding instruments that are designed to achieve specific ends.”
So the question becomes, how do we take these implied rights to water and make them a reality for suffering humans who desperately need them? What is the best course of action? Or, perhaps a more practical question for us to tackle is, what are the viable options that are available to human beings? Should we rely solely on government legislation and enforcement or encourage private sectors to help provide the solution? What are humanitarian non-governmental organizations doing to support those in need of water? And finally, how can all three of these entities work together to improve the current condition?
Are there solutions beyond those that we’ve already seen fail in privatized and governmental attempts? These are the questions that I’ve been thinking about most. We’ve developed some hopeful ideas and begun mapping out our draft of a solution. We will release this to the Wishtank audience and the educational field in part two of this essay in the fall. •
Garrett Heaney is the Founding Editor of Wishtank magazine. He works at a health food store in America that sells a 5-L (1.3-gallon) box of water for $9.99 USD.
All materials published on wishtank.org are under the shared copyright protection of Wishtank magazine and the original authors, photographers and artists who created them. For contractual reprint or copy permission, contact Garrett Heaney at editor@wishtank.org. Wishtank likes to share, but looks out for our contributors. ©2007 and beyond