Every year, 3.5 million people die of water-borne illness. Diarrhea is the second largest cause of death among children under five. Lack of access to potable water kills more children than AIDS, malaria and smallpox combined. Worldwide, approximately 1 in 8 people lack potable water.
In just one day, more than 200 million hours of women’s time is consumed by collecting and transporting water for domestic use.
The situation of lack of sanitation is far worse, for it affects 2.6 billion people, or 40% of the global population.
These are the 41 countries that abstained in the July 28 UN General Assembly vote on Bolivia’s resolution to recognise access to water and sanitation as basic human rights. Rather than honestly vote “no”, they abstained to avoid being labelled as opponents of access to water, but many made statements that reveal their hostility to the very idea of recognising water as a human right.
Among others:
- Canada complained that the resolution “appeared to determine that there was indeed a right without setting out its scope”.
- The UK said “there was no sufficient legal basis for declaring or recognising water or sanitation as freestanding human rights, nor was there evidence that they existed in customary law”.
- The United States said “there was no ‘right to water and sanitation’ in an international legal sense, as described by the resolution”.
- Australia “had reservations about declaring new human rights in a General Assembly resolution”.
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