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UN vote declares access to water a basic human right

29 July 2010 23:37 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Access to clean water and sanitation were declared fundamental human rights Wednesday in a landmark vote by the UN General Assembly, APA reports quoting The Daily Star.
The passage of the nonbinding resolution which calls water â€œa human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rightsâ€ is supposed to have more than just symbolic significance for governments which are grappling with the dual pressure of rising demand and falling water availability.
Lebanon â€“ which voted for the resolution â€“ has been slowly eroding its fresh water reserves for decades and experts fear that demand could increase by 80 percent in the next 15 year and that the country could run out of ground water supplies by 2015 if current trends are not reversed.
â€œIssuing a nonbinding resolution does not have a direct legal obligation on countries [which are] party to the UN,â€ said Darine al-Hage, executive director of Lebanese NGO Alef: Act for Human Rights. â€œHowever, such resolutions usually could develop into being a source of international law and could eventually generate drafting-related conventions to be discussed within the UN country members, which applies to Lebanon as a state party.â€
The resolution, which advocates th presentation of annual reports on water access to the Security Council, also puts added pressure on the international community to fund water-management projects in poorer countries.
The resolution was adopted by a vote of 122-0 but 41 predominantly advanced nations, including the United States, abstained in the vote.
â€œThe [US] is deeply committed to finding solutions to our water challenges,â€ US diplomat John Sammis told the General Assembly. â€œ[But the resolution] describes a right to water and sanitation in a way that is not reflective of existing international law.â€
Previous attempts to define access to clean water as a basic human right failed in 2008 after several developed countries again moved to have references to water stricken from the resolution.
Advocacy groups at the time attributed the failure to the consequences for bottled water exporters, which, it was feared, would be forced to sell their products to water poor countries at a reduced rate.
The new resolution, put forward by Bolivia, was advanced on the basis that inadequate access to water kills more people every year than any wars or conflict. Some 4.5 million people, including 1.5 million children under the age of 5 are thought to die every year due to insufficient access to clean drinking water.