World Water Day is observed every year on March 22 as a day of action to draw attention to the role that fresh water plays in our world and lives, and the challenges that lie ahead in realizing right to water for all. The past year has been momentous as far as the advancement of right to water goes. There have been two developments in the U.N. system in 2010, both of which uphold the state’s responsibility in ensuring the right to water. The first was the United Nations General Assembly Resolution of July 28, 2010 and the second has been the U.N. Human Rights Commission Resolution of September, 2010.
Acknowledging these and other developments around the world as well as outlining the broad contours of the challenges communities face in realizing the right to water, the following statement has been prepared for this World Water Day by all who are part of the water justice movement.
World Water Day Statement from the Water Justice Movement March 22, 2011
On World Water Day 2011, with water justice activists around the world mobilizing to assert the right to water and sanitation for people and communities, to preserve water as part of an ecological trust and to ensure that water is democratically controlled by the people in the public interest, we issue this short statement to reflect on both recent victories toward implementation of the right to water as well as the challenges and threats that remain ahead.
We are heartened by passage this past year of two resolutions within the U.N. system that have further affirmed the right to water and the obligations governments must fulfill to uphold this right. The first resolution, passed in July 2010 in the U.N. General Assembly was championed by leading countries in Latin America, including Bolivia, as well as other countries in the global South, and its passage marked the first time this body had gone on record formally acknowledging the right to water and sanitation.
The passage of a resolution within the U.N. Human Rights Council acknowledging states’ obligations to fulfill the rights to water and sanitation just three months later is demonstrative of the momentum that has been built over the past year. Even those countries in the global North, reluctant to support the resolution, have been compelled to shift their positions, recognizing that the time when governments must truly recognize this right is at hand.
We also wish to express our solidarity with the communities and individuals struggling in their own countries to push for national recognition of the right to water, such as in Colombia where an effort to enshrine the right to water as a constitutional right shares wide popular support despite resistance from elected officials.
We find the imminent decision of the U.N. Human Rights Council to extend the position of the U.N. Independent Expert on the Rights to Water and Sanitation a promising step toward honoring the commitment governments need to make toward advancing the right to water. We are pleased that as a result of the resolution authorizing this extension, communities whose right to water is being violated or hindered may now raise specific complaints with the Independent Expert, now the Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Water and Sanitation.
We also look forward to efforts in the coming year by champions of the right to water in the global South to move U.N. Member States to pass a resolution that would call on states to guard against the privatization of water resources and systems, which would be further evidence that governments are prioritizing their obligation to protect the right to water from interference by corporations intent on exploiting water resources for profit at the expense of people and nature.
The ongoing tragic events in Japan demonstrate how even in countries where the majority of people have adequate access to water and sanitation, a natural calamity can quickly put millions in desperate situations where access to water quickly vanishes. This profound reminder of our fragility and dependence on this fundamental resource should strengthen our resolve to ensure there are strong protections for people’s right to water, so that it is prioritized when emergencies occur, and so that the billions of people whose lives are a constant struggle for access to water and sanitation might finally find reprieve.
The long struggle for free expression and self-determination that has recently flowered in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere, provides a profound analogy to the ongoing struggle we have seen to protect and fulfill people’s right to water. For too long, some governments have failed to respect the rights of their people. This negligence has included not only the denial of people’s civil and political rights, but in some cases their rights to water as well.
Governments now have a choice. They can honor these rights and take full responsibility. They can prioritize the right to water by fully funding these systems and by protecting the water sources that provide people with access, especially the poorest who are in greatest need. They can support the public water systems and workers that run these systems by enhancing their capacity and supporting sustainable jobs for those who are entrusted with running these systems. They can foster truly democratic institutions that give people and communities the power to make decisions about how their water sources and public water are governed, with full transparency, participation and accountability.
Or, they can abdicate that responsibility, whether by closing their eyes to over-extraction and pollution of water sources or by handing over control of the water systems to the private sector, rationalizing their decisions in the name of narrow economic efficiency.
So, today, on World Water Day, we call on the United Nations and its member states to continue to take concrete action to fully realize the right to water for people and nature. The momentum built this year must not be delayed by further inaction or by attempts to co-opt such efforts into just another means by which to maintain the status quo for the benefit of entrenched corporate and political interests.
Countries must not only lend their weight to these international efforts, but must also take greater responsibility for full implementation of this right within their own borders, such as by developing comprehensive national plans for democratic governance of water resources, public water and sanitation systems. Communities should have the power to decide how to organize their common resources, especially one as vital to survival as water.
As people around the world over strive for greater transparency, accountability and participatory democracy, governments must heed these voices, not just that of bankers and corporations. Let us together revive our commitment to democracy and democratic institutions so that together we can fully realize and implement the right to water.
