Most Canadians are far removed from this issue and ignorant of the fact that approximately 1 billion of the world's population do not have adequate "access" to water and an estimated 2.5 billion carry out their lives without access to any type of sanitation facility (i.e. proper and safe place to poo). With respect to water, "access" per capita as defined by the United Nations means at least 20 litres a day within 1 km of some type of improved water supply. For comparison, 20 litres is roughly equivalent to a 2-minute shower or 3 toilet flushes. And I don't know about you, but I have never had to walk up to 1 kilometer to get anything, food, mail, never mind water. Yet 1 billion people need to walk at least 1 kilometer to fetch water -water that is not even necessarily drinkable as is. Woman and children bear the greatest burden of fetching water, and are forced to sacrifice hours each day, missing school and relinquishing much opportunity to do productive work, just to carry water not only for themselves but for their entire household.
This year the theme of World Water Day is on Transboundary Water - issues relating to how neighbouring countries negotiate and allocate water resources from watersheds that cross national borders, as well as effective management of water quality and pollution prevention in those water systems. Imagine the Nile or the Mekong River, which collectively flow through more than a dozen countries and easily serves tens of millions of people. How can countries cooperate and collaborate to ensure that every "neighbour" has enough water and doesn't have to deal with polluted water that they were not responsible for in creating?
This year World Water Day coincided with the World Water Forum, a gathering of governmental officials, water companies, and NGO leaders, working on the water issue, which takes place every 3 years with the purpose to shape global water policy. There were high hopes that the country delegates at the conference this year would support the declaration of water as a human right; however, the final product was a declaration signed by some 150 countries (CBC) that recognizes water as a "basic need", rather than a right.
"We acknowledge the discussions with the UN system regarding human rights and access to safe drinking water and sanitation. We recognize that access to safe drinking water and sanitation is a basic human need," the statement said.
Ha! I'm pretty sure we didn't need to spend millions of dollars flying these 25,000 delegates (AFP) to Istanbul, Turkey, put them up in fancy hotels, stuff them with h'or d'oeuvres, just for them to declare water as a basic need. Maybe next year, the World Food Forum will really push the envelope and declare access to food as a basic human need. (NOTE: I'm not not sure of a WFF actually exists)
Among the opposing countries were the United States, China, Brazil, Egypt and... Canada (CBC and Christian Science Monitor). One of the main reasons cited by countries against designating water as a right, was the fear of being forced to transfer (share) already scarce water resources with other countries. But the cynic inside of me feels that if they don't declare water as a right, then if anything, it actually opens up the opportunity for the commodification of water. For example, if a government declares health care or education as a right, then they would, from an ideological basis, support it through the public system so that people can have equal chance of accessing it. Oppositely, if you don't declare something as a right, then there would be less barrier to the privatization of its delivery and weakened government responsibility for ensuring that all its citizens have access to it - in this case, affordable, clean water.
The lack of binding protocols at the forum prompted about 20 dissenting members, including Bangladesh, South African and Spain, to issue their own declaration, defining safe drinking water as a human right (CBC and AFP). Regardless of the outcome from the forum, numerous countries, many in Latin American, have already incorporated access to water as a right in their constitutions.
I commend them for standing against the prevailing neoliberalist ideologies. Good for them for recognizing the true motives and agendas of the nations that are home to some of the world's largest water utility companies and corporations. And on that note...
Happy World Water Day everyone!
Now I'm going to go drink some water and then do a Sudoku while taking my biobreak in my personal sanitary facility.
