The Right to Water

Access to Adequate Clean Water is a Human Right

"Water is a basic element of all life. Over 70 percent of the human body is made up of water. While a human being may survive without food for several days, water deprivation can kill a person within a matter of hours. Water is also a requirement for the most basic activities vital to sustaining human life, including agriculture, cooking, and sanitation. Yet while water sustains life, it can also bring death if contaminated. Some of the deadliest diseases, which kill millions around the world each year, are carried in unclean water. Access to adequate amounts of clean water, for both consumption and sanitation, is a prerequisite for a healthy life. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares, “all human beings have the right to life”; this includes the right to water.

"Although the international community recognized the right to water, as a component of the right to life, over fifty years ago, millions around the world are still denied access to adequate amounts of clean water. Violations of the right to water come in many forms: industrial pollution of water sources, failure to provide purification and sanitation for the urban poor, pricing of water delivery beyond the reach of the rural poor. In arid regions, states have regulated access to water as a way of controlling marginalized groups. ..." --The Center for Economic and Social Rights; read more on cite