World Water Day: Help Ensure Clean Water for Everyone

March 22 of every year is designated by the United Nations as World Water Day. This year's theme — "Clean Water for a Healthy World" — reminds me of the role water plays in the health of every human being. Water is vital to life, and clean water is a sine qua non of health. The experts who defined the human right to water in the U.N. Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights's General Comment No. 15 as entitling "everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses" understand this very well. People, somehow, usually find some water to drink, no matter how little. It might take trekking miles to get it — which in itself is a huge problem — but the sad part is that, more often than not, what they labor so hard to find may not be fit for human consumption. They drink it anyway, knowing that the glass of water affects them and their children's health and consequently their lives.

Unfortunately, for the estimated almost 1 billion people in our world who lack access to safe, clean water, drinking unsafe water is part of everyday life. In some places, they even make a joke of it. In Nigeria, the country where I grew up, it is common for everyday people to deny such fears by reiterating the fallacious joke that "germs do not kill an African." But they do kill! In many developing countries, especially in Africa and parts of Asia, water-borne diseases, including cholera, diarrhea, typhoid fever, malaria, and guinea-worm disease, are very common, affecting children especially — many of whom die as a result. Sadly, these diseases are preventable. One very important step in their prevention is ensuring that water used for drinking and other domestic uses is safe. The World Health Organization has recommended standards for drinking-water quality, which most governments claim they abide by, but for those without access this means little or nothing.

Clean Water for a Healthy World sounds great — but are policymakers and leaders of government really listening? I remember how excited I and other participants were to be part of a youth training program in 2005, sponsored by the World Bank and British Council, called "Debate to Action." The aim was for us to learn about, debate, and act on the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), one of which is to reduce by half the number of people without access to safe drinking water and sanitation by 2015, which we called "MDG 7" for short. It was a laudable program, but many of us, for various reasons, including lack of resources, could not do much to help implement the MDGs for underserved populations who really needed it.

Ten years after the MDGs were proclaimed, many countries in Africa and parts of Asia are still not on track towards achieving them. It is not enough for government leaders to come together once in a while and pronounce some laudable goals that make them look good — the most important thing is to work towards fulfillment. They often fall short in this regard, and MDG 7 is a case in point. There has been some progress, I agree, but it's really a drop in the ocean if we consider the estimated 1 billion people that still cry out for access to safe water. It is encouraging, however, that U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has written a report on the MDGs called "Keeping the Promise" and is meeting with world leaders later this year to deliberate on progress so far.

Looking at the bright side, I see tremendous potential in the great work UUSC's partners are doing to protect and defend the human right to water, and I hope that they will be replicated elsewhere. A number of UUSC's partners and allies have taken up the issue of access to affordable water and water quality as the focus of their work, and UUSC is providing financial and technical support to encourage them. Comisión Pastoral Paz y Ecología, our partner in Guatemala, has been addressing mining in that country and how it affects water quality. In California, the situation of over 150,000 residents of Central Valley whose tap water is contaminated by nitrates and other toxins helped inspire the Human Right to Water Act. UUSC's allies — the Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry California, the Community Water Center, the Environmental Justice Coalition on Water, and other members of the Water Summit Human Right to Water Group — championed the bill, which, unfortunately, was ultimately vetoed. The Habitat International Coalition, our partner in Mexico, is using the law to fight for access to safe water for a community that was cut off by a government water-connection plan.

But there is so much more to do. We cannot always count on our governments to do these things for us. If we all can take a moment to learn about our water and what is in it, and begin to ask questions, we will be taking an important step toward ensuring clean water for a healthy world.