6:53 Makka Time, 3:53 GMT
Bolivia says that the right to life implies the right to water
Bolivia is refusing to sign an international declaration on the importance of clean water because it falls short of calling access to it a human right.
The Bolivian water minister said on Monday that La Paz wants to call supplies of clean water a human right in a document to be signed at the meeting this week.
"It's very clear that we all have a right to life and health," Abel Mamani said. "The right to life and right to health without water is contradictory".
South America's poorest country, increasingly vocal on the world stage since the election of Evo Morales as president, is holding out against other nations and international bodies at the World Water Forum being held in Mexico City.
A draft of the declaration calls water important to the poor and to people's health, but does not describe it as a human right.
Morales created a water ministry after taking power in January and appointed Mamani, an activist in recent years who was key in chasing foreign water companies such as French utility Suez out of Bolivia.
Survival necessity
Mamani said privatisation of water services in Bolivia led to soaring prices that left clean water out of reach of the poorest people.
"The right to life and right to health without water is contradictory"
Abel Mamani, Bolivian water minister
"You can't use a thing as important as water, which is synonymous with life, to make money," Mamani said.
"We're talking about something that unfortunately is necessary for survival."
The World Water Forum's ruling body is made up of members from governments, international organisations such as the World Bank, scientists and business people.
Around 1.1 billion people, mostly in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, lack easy access to safe drinking water.
Delegates at the meeting have said new ideas and investments are needed to meet a UN goal of halving by 2015 the number of people without safe drinking water.
Mamani complained that the entry fee to the forum, at $120 a day, effectively excluded the poor from taking part in the event.
The right to water - World Health Organisation
http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/rightowater/en/
This publication:
Outlines the scope and content of the legal definition of the human right to water and its relationship to other civil, cultural, economic, political, and social rights;
Discusses the right to water as a human right, and examines its implications on the roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders;
Examines the various communities affecting and being affected by the right to water;
Considers the contribution the right to water can and should make towards making drinking-water a reality for all;
Explores a human rights-based approach to water.
- Download the full pdf document [pdf 607kb]
http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/rtwrev.pdf
or download individual chapters as per links below:
- Title page, foreword and table of contents [pdf 81kb]
- Chapter 1 - Water as a human right [pdf 150kb]
- Chapter 2 - General Comment on the Right to Water [pdf 117kb]
- Chapter 3 - Who is affected [pdf 110kb]
- Chapter 4 - Governments responsibilities [pdf 65kb]
- Chapter 5 - Implications for other stake holders [pdf 67kb]
- References and further reading, Acknowledgements [pdf 67kb]
The right to water (pdf) - United Nations
Reuters
Related:
10,000 protest at water summit
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/16D30D0D-916D-4484-9C3B-EA56CE20A7C0.htm
Friday 17 March 2006, 11:22 Makka Time, 8:22 GMT
Protesters chanted "water is not for sale"
About 10,000 protesters have marched in Mexico City, where 11,000 delegates and representatives met at the 4th World Water Forum to discuss ways to improve supplies for the poor.
Opponents say that the seven-day forum, which began on Thursday, is a cover for privatisation.
Participants from 121 countries, debated topics including the developing world's growing reliance on bottled water bought from private companies, instead of on public water systems, which some call a form of privatisation.
Cristina Hernandez, a protester, said: "We don't want privatisation because it will only serve as a business for someone. Services get more expensive with privatisation, but not better."
Some protesters marched past rows of riot police chanting: "Governments understand, water is not for sale!"
Loic Fauchon, the president of the World Water Council, a non-governmental group, called on the forum to provide massive donations to rebuild water systems in the poorest nations and largest cities.
He said: "A lot of poor people are leaving their countries to go to rich countries. Isn't it preferable, isn't it cheaper, to pay so that these people have water, sewage, energy, to keep open the possibility for them to stay in their [own] countries?"
Protesters accuse the forum of being a front for privatisation
He suggested creating a peacekeeping force - modelled after the UN "blue helmets" - but said "we don't want to override national governments, we just need a force that will take over in cases of water conflicts".
Water clashes have already occurred in Mexico. In 2004, Mazahua Indians took over a treatment plant and cut off part of the capital's water supply, to protest against water extraction from their land.
Privatisation denied
Forum organisers denied pushing privatisation, saying that they were trying to promote better water management.
Jose Luis Luege, Mexico's environment secretary, said: "Nobody is talking about privatising a resource that is something inalienable, sovereign."
However, he said he strongly supported the idea of granting concessions for specific water projects to private firms.
While outright privatisation of public water systems has been lucrative, the private sector earns more money by selling bottled water to people in developing countries who often do not have drinkable tap water.
Unfit for washing
Mexico, for example, is now the second-largest consumer of bottled water in the world, behind the United States in terms of volume and behind Italy in consumption per head.
Sales of bottled water in China rose by more than 250% between 1999 and 2004. They tripled in India and almost doubled in Indonesia, according to a study released by the institute. Worldwide, the industry is now worth about $100 billion a year.
Tap water in some countries is so bad that it is unfit even for washing.
Javier Bogantes, director of the Latin American Water Tribunal, said: "You can't even brush your teeth without fearing that you're going to get who knows what infection."
Fauchon acknowledged the problem; holding up a bottle of branded water - the only drinkable kind available at the forum - he said "this right here costs 200 to 400 times what tap water would".
AP
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/179D2C7B-384C-45F2-894E-54B6A21A29AB.htm
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http://humane-rights-agenda.blogspot.com/2006/03/bolivia-water-is-human-right-tuesday_20.html
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