By Rich Bowden:

While water activists and environmentalists have hailed the recent decision by the UN General Assembly to grant access to safe water and adequate sanitation as a human right, Australia and New Zealand followed the United States, Canada and the UK in abstaining from the vote.

A United Nations water expert has hailed the declaration by the UN General Assembly that access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation is to be considered a human right as a “landmark” decision. The ruling comes ahead of an important September meeting to review progress towards Millennium Development Goals (MDG) including those on water and sanitation, however the vote was far from unanimous with over forty countries, including the US, UK, Canada and Australia abstaining.

Catarina de Albuquerque, the UN Independent Expert on human rights, water and sanitation said the outcome was a “positive” sign towards increasing the number of people with access to basic sanitation and drinking water.

“With almost a billion people suffering from lack of access to an improved water source, and 2.6 billion without access to improved sanitation, recognition of the human right to water and sanitation is a positive signal from the international community and shows its commitment to tackle these issues,” Ms de Albuquerque said in a statement following the vote.

The declaration, which was passed by 122 nations with none voting against and 41 abstentions, “declares the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of the right to life”. Member countries were urged to “scale up efforts to provide safe, clean, accessible and affordable water and sanitation for all,” according to the resolution.

Experts were delighted that sanitation was also included in the resolution as progress access to adequate sanitation (a key UN Millennium Development Goal) has lagged far behind progress towards water goals.

Speaking to Radio Australia, WaterAid UK’s, Kate Norgrove, head of campaigns at WaterAid UK said it “…was great news…that [the resolution] included a reference to sanitation, which is one the most off track Millennium Development Goals.”

Outlining the case for a “yes” vote, Bolivian ambassador Pablo Solon, whose country sponsored the resolution, called on the international community to take action against preventable diseases caused by unclean water.

“I ask all delegations to bear in mind the fact that, according to the 2009 report of the World Health Organi­sation and UNICEF entitled Diarrhea: Why children are still dying and what can be done, 24,000 children die in developing countries every day from preventable causes like diarrhea contracted from unclean water,” said Ambassador Solon.

“That is one child death every three and a half seconds… “Now is the time,” he said.

However, though no member state voted against the declaration, it received far from majority support with countries such as the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and Australia abstaining from the declaration. Some of these delegations said the resolution would “undermine” efforts on cooperation in UN-sponsored water and sanitation talks.

US delegate John Sammis said the resolution “falls far short of enjoying the unanimous support of member states and may even undermine the work underway in Geneva. The United States regrets that this resolution diverts us from the serious international efforts underway to promote greater coordination and cooperation on water and sanitation issues,” he added.

He added the resolution as passed conflicts with that described in international law.

“This resolution describes a right to water and sanitation in a way that is not reflective of existing international law; as there is no “right to water and sanitation in an international legal sense as described by this resolution,” said Mr Sammis.

British delegate Nicola Freedman, whose country also abstained, agreed saying there was not “at present sufficient legal basis under international law to either declare or recognise water or sanitation as free-standing human rights.”

However Maude Barlow, Canadian water activist, author and water expert, denied the resolution would cause problems in engaging the world on water and sanitation issues.

“It’s time to reach consensus that the world’s poor deserve recognition of this human right without further delay or equivocation,” she said to the Circle of Blue website prior to the General Assembly vote.

Following the passing of the vote, Ms Barlow told website Democracy Now the vote in favor of the resolution was a breakthrough.

“… for the first time, the United Nations General Assembly debated the right to water and sanitation—it’s very important both were included—and acknowledged and recognized the right of every human being on earth to water and sanitation. And this matters because—as you know, because we’ve talked so many times—we are running—a planet running out of water,” she said in the interview.

She went on to outline the case for action on water and sanitation by quoting World Bank statistics which show demand will exceed supply by 40 percent by 2030.

… what [the vote] did was basically say that the United Nations has decided it’s not going to let huge populations leave them behind as this crisis unfolds, that the new priority is to be given to these populations without water and sanitation,” she added.

Tags: general assembly vote water, sanitation, un sanitation, un water, Water