Social JusticeWho has the Right to a Drink of Water?

It’s A Question of Human Rights

• And It’s In Debate • It Involves Choices, Money and

Political Power • Health and Personal Opportunity.• Wealth and Poverty

Take A Look At Some Scenes From Around

the World

Perspective

These are all people merely doing what they have to do to get a drink of water. A lot more than turning a tap.

On Their Own • These People Are A Long Way From St.

Edward’s University

• They Might Have A Human Right to Water. • But They Are Largely On Their Own.• We’re Talking About Billions of People

Global Water

Around the world, the statistics

are horrendous.

Those Without Water

• At least 1 billion people do not know where their next drink of water is coming from.

• Nearly one-seventh of the people on earth.

• Most live in developing countries. They are poor.

No Toilets

More than twice as many people, a staggering 2.6 billion, do not have toilets. Not good toilets; Not flush toilets; No toilets.

Children Suffer Most • Children under

5 become quickly become dehydrated.

• Often, before their parents realize how sick they are, they are dead.

• Each year 1.8 million people die as a result of diarrhea and other water-borne diseases. Nearly 5,000 deaths a day, mostly children.

It’s Even Worse

• People who have been working on water problems all their lives say that the real number of people without routine access to clean drinking water may be as high as 3 or 4 billion.

How The Counters Count

• That’s because the United Nations standard is that only those without water piped into their houses or their villages are counted as not having access.

• The problem, the experts say, is that much of the piped water around the world is swarming with bacteria and parasites.

The Problem

• Historically When Governments Have Spent Money on Public Projects It Often Has Been for Things Like Roads and Bridges and Hospitals;

• Things that are good for ribbon-cutting ceremonies, photo opportunities.

Not A Priority

• Water Has Not Been A Priority

• It Can Seem Mundane. The Wealthy Just Buy What They Need. So It’s No Problem For Them.

But It Should Be

• Water Is A Big Factor In Life• In Some Places Women Use Up A Lot of Time

Walking For Water• People Are Routinely Sick Because of Their

Water • Adults Miss Work; Children Miss School

Water And Poverty

• Water Problems and Poverty Go Together. Both Often Largely Invisible.

• No One Actually Goes Without It. You Don’t See Bodies Piling Up. Rarely A Commotion.

ANOTHER Way To Say Poverty

• The Water Problem Often Looks More Like Chronic Poverty than What It Really Is: A Water Problem

Pushing For Human Rights

• About 10 Years Ago A Few People Around The World Got An Idea.

• If They Could Establish That Clean Drinking Water and Simple Toilets Were Fundamental Human Rights, Maybe They Could Create Pressure on Governments to Seriously Address The Problem.

The Status Quo

• For A Long Time, You Could Ask Almost Anyone About Human Rights And Water And They’d Say, Of Course It’s A Human Right

• But That Was An Assumption, Nothing Binding• The Idea, Starting 10 years or So Ago, Was To

Add The Force Of Law To The Assumption

Lots Of Debate

• Certain Countries, Including the United States and Canada, Did Not Want Formal Recognition.

• The United States worried that it would have to pay to help other countries solve their water problems. It wouldn’t be a matter of choice. It would be mandatory.

O Canada

• Canada, Which Has More Good, Clean Fresh Water Than Almost Any Other Place, Worried That With The Creation of a New International Law, Canada Would Have to Share Its Water.

Along Came This Woman

• Catarina De Albuquerque,

• Portuguese Lawyer

• United Nations specialist on Human Rights and Water, the Independent Expert

She Wanted Action

• I Talked with Her in Sweden in September During An Annual Meeting Of Water Experts Called World Water Week

• She Told Me: “We Have to Stop Talking About it – Talking About Whether the Right Exists or Not.

• “The Right Exists. • “Put Your Energy into Making it

Real.”

Some Big Developments

• Just This Year Some Good Things Have Happened. And Catarina De Albuquerque Had a Lot to Do With it.

• In July the General Assembly of the United Nations, for the first time, adopted a resolution Saying that Access to Clean Drinking Water Was A Human Right.

More Big Developments • In September, Just a Few Weeks Ago, the

Human Rights Council of the United Nations In Geneva, Concluded That Access to Water Was A Human Right Under Existing United Nations Provisions.

• The Council Said No New Law Was Needed – Just the Opposite of The Trend That Began 10 Years Ago.

• The Council Is Not As Important As the General Assembly. But It Is Still Important.

Impact

• It Looked Like She Was Having An Impact

• But Maybe Not

The Voting

• The Vote In July Showed A Lot Of Support For Water As A Human Right

• But A Lot of Important Players Abstained From Voting, Including the United States and Canada

• The Vote was 122 Yeses, 41 Abstentions• 29 Countries Did Not Participate In The Vote

Good News & Bad News

• The Good News Is That The Assumption That Access To Clean Drinking Water Is A Human Right Has Been Strengthened

• 122 Countries Are Now On Record In Support• The Bad News Is that We’re Still Working With

Assumptions.

The Debate

• The Last Decade of Debate Has Been Over Creating Concrete Rules That Would Force Nations of the World to do the Right Thing.

• More and More Countries Have Been Getting on Board. But It Was Still Not Unanimous and Catarina Was Pushing To Move On.

Gambling

• Catarina De Albuquerque Seemed to Be Gambling That There Was Now Enough Momentum, Enough Attention on Water, That She Could Get Something Done.

Back To Square One?

• Maybe.• Maybe Not.• One Interpretation Is That Those Who See

Water As A Human Right Have Been Out-Maneuvered

• To Me, We’re Very Close to Being Back to Square One. It’s A Good Idea But It’s Not Mandatory

The Obama Factor

• President Obama Favors Doing More on Water.

• I was very optimistic when I heard him talking about water in his inaugural speech.

I know he cares about water and the environment. But the way things are going now I don’t know how much of a force for change he’s going to be.

The Obama Factor

It’s A Big Problem

• There is Surely a Lot of Work to Be Done.• Getting Everyone Access to Clean Drinking

Water and Decent Toilets Seems A Long Way Off. And the Countries Where Things Are Worst Are the Poorest.

• Maybe We’ll See Some Progress. I Hope So.• But It’s A Work in Progress.• In the Meantime, Lots of Women and

Children Are Going to Keep Spending Too Much of Their Days

• Walking, • And Walking, • And Walking.

• To Fetch A Pail of Water

• Rajiv Singha flickr

The End