Is water a human right?

Water is becoming a very controversial topic in the recent years especially as the amount we have available starts to lower over time. In 10 years Yemen is expected to have no water left in their whole country. This brings up the issue of if water should be a human right or a commodity. There are strong arguments for each side.

From looking at the World Health Organization’s website, WHO, I found a section on water sanitation and health which talks about if water should be a human right. Water being a human right means that they have access to water that is clean and in a sufficient amount to meet individual needs. It does not specify how much water you will get per person so this number could be different depending on who you ask and from what country they are from. However, in general it must meet a minimum, the quantity must suffice to meet basic human needs in terms of drinking, bathing, cleaning, cooking and sanitation.  If water is a human right it also means that water is affordable and accessible for everyone. This is no longer true when they have to walk miles to reach drinking water or that water is so expensive that they have to use money set for something else to pay for their water. Although industry and electricity are important for an adequate standard of living, these uses must not disturb the right to household water. Water that was used for industry and agriculture must not be contaminated after for drinking water.

There are many obstacles to achieving this such as: water scarcity, bad planning and management, overpricing of water, and groundwater contamination. In the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the two 1966 International Covenants on, respectively, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), water is not mentioned explicitly, but it is regarded as an integral component of other recognized rights, such as the rights to life, to adequate standard of living, to health, to housing and to food. In considering state obligations human beings are responsible for themselves and their own well-being. The state must take legislative, administrative and other action progressively to achieve that every human being within its jurisdiction has access to adequate water, to the maximum of its available resources. An example of state obligation is to dig wells, cleaning up pollution, and setting up and maintaining pipelines. The state does not have to do this themselves but they have to make sure it is being done. If something is a human right it means that it is about governance and what they are required to do and what not to do to infringe or protect those rights.

The United Nations stated that water and sanitation should be a human right. With these two things taken care of poverty rates will go down significantly. The right to water is not directly mentioned in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights but it is implied. The water problem cannot be fixed by one universal policy, which is why there is not one in place. Water will face more problems in coming years due to population growth and ground water drilling.

http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/humanrights/en/index1.html

http://www.unric.org/en/water/27360-making-water-a-human-right

http://www.righttowater.info/