By Balasubramanyam Seshan: Subscribe to Balasubramanyam's RSS feed
July 29, 2010 1:41 PM EDT
Safe and clean drinking water and sanitation is a fundamental human right, the United Nations General Assembly assserted. The assembly expressed deep concern that some 884 million people do not have access to safe drinking water and more than 2.6 billion lacked access to basic sanitation.
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 resolution received 122 votes in favor and zero votes against, while 41 countries abstained from voting. The nations abstained from voting included Canada, the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Botswana.
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The resolution states that “the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of the right to life.”
Bolivia’s representative said the human right to water had not been fully recognized, despite references to it in various international instruments. Lack of access to water killed more children annually than AIDS, malaria and measles combined, while the lack of sanitation affected 2.6 billion people, or 40 per cent of the global population, the representative pointed out.
UN study indicates that nearly 1.5 million children under age of five die each year and 443 million school days are lost because of water and sanitation-related diseases.
The representative of the United States expressed his Government’s deep commitment to finding solutions to global water challenges, noting that water and sanitation would be an important focus at the upcoming Millennium Development Goal Summit.
“The text attempted to take a short cut around the serious work of formulating, articulating and upholding universal rights. It had not been drafted in a transparent, inclusive manner, and neither the Assembly, nor the Geneva process had yet considered fully the legal implications of a declared right to water. For those reasons, the United States had called for a vote and would abstain in the voting,” the representation of United States said.
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