human right of access to water
“Water promises to be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th century: the precious commodity that determines the wealth of nations.”
--Fortune magazine, May 2000
The world's water resources are becoming more scarce. At the same time, greedy corporations seek to exploit this precious resource for profit. People around the world who depend on water for life and livelihood are losing ownership and control of vital water resources.
On June 25, 2004, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill.. and 32 co-sponsors introduced the Water for the World Resolution into the U.S. House of Representatives. This urgent resolution calls upon the U.S. government to recognize water as a global public good and fundamental human right in its trade, development and international financial policies.
For the full text of the resolution, visit Water for the World and enter “HCON 468” in the bill-number box.
Action
Urge your representative to co-sponsor House Concurrent Resolution 468, the Water for the World Resolution. Visit our online Legislative Action Center to send an immediate message by e-mail or fax.
Message
I strongly urge you to co-sponsor H. Con. Res. 468, the Water for the World Resolution.
More than a billion people worldwide lack adequate access to safe drinking water. Thousands, mostly children, die each day from preventable waterborne diseases. I feel strongly our government must uphold and promote the principle that clean water for drinking and sanitation is a fundamental human right.
The Water for the World Resolution recognizes that government policies should ensure that all individuals have equitable access to water and no one should be cut off from water due to economic constraints.
Global and regional trade agreements make is more difficult for local, state and national governments to regulate water services and sales. It is most important that the U.S. executive directors of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other financial institutions should not approve loans requiring privatization when those policies result in reduced access to water, nor should trade agreements include conditions that would result in reduced access to water for human use.
Background
At the beginning of the 21st century a global water crisis is looming. There is an international consensus – enshrined in the United Nations General Comment on the right to water and in the UN Millennium Development Goal – that water is a fundamental human right and that access to water can mean the difference between sickness and health, cyclical poverty and economic development.
The global water supply is finite. Fresh water is less than 1 percent of the world's total water resources, yet water use is doubling every 20 years. According to the United Nations, 1.3 billion people in the world today lack access to clean water while 2.5 billion do not have adequate sewage disposal and sanitation. If current trends continue, two thirds of the world's population will be living with serious water shortages and one third in conditions of absolute scarcity.
However, the world is on the brink of great changes in how water is stored, used and valued. Will these changes provide clean water to the billions of people who need it? Or save the child who dies every eight seconds from contaminated water?
When it comes to water, many people demand local control and fear the involvement of multinational corporations with large lobbying budgets and little local loyalty. But, across the United States, cities and towns must replace aging pipes and public water plants at an estimated cost of up to a trillion dollars. Potentially huge profits are attracting global water companies, but public opinion is divided over privatization.
Stories from around the the world
Detroit, Mich.: Over 40,000 Highland Park/Detroit families have suffered from water shutoffs because of inability to pay. The Michigan Welfare Rights Organization has taken the city to court.
Lawrence, Mass.: The mayor had consultants perform a secret review of five bids to have the city's water system privatized through a long-term contract. Within two weeks of a City Council meeting, the mayor's advisory committed selected United Water to take over the city's water department. Grassroots activists set in motion the “Hands Off Our Water” campaign which defeated the initiative.
Stockton, Calif.: Citizens campaign for a public vote when the City Council moves to outsource the city's water system, long considered one of the best-run utilities in the nation, to a German-led multinational. Citizens were not so lucky in this case. Their initiative failed.
Cochabamba, Bolivia: When the World Bank required Bolivia to privatize the water system in Cochabamba in order to receive a loan for a new dam, the city signed a 40-year contract with a subsidiary of Bechtel Corp. Within weeks, the corporation imposed a 35 percent rate hike on local water users, up to 25 percent of a family's income. Thousands took to the streets. Bechtel fled the country, but is using a bilateral trade agreement to demand $25 million from Bolivia in lost potential profits.
These four examples are only a small, small percentage of communities which found themselves threatened with losing public control of their water resources to multinational corporations. And they each fought long odds in resisting the juggernaut of globalization, which is driving the worldwide privatization of public resources, utilities, and services.
UUSC program update
As UUSC enters the final phase of its program review and refocus, it has selected environmental justice with a primary focus on promoting and defending the human right to water as one of its three major themes for program development.
For more information on water, visit these websites:
www.thealliancefordemocracy.org/water
www.blueplanetproject.net/english
And stay tuned as UUSC develops its exciting new program on water.
Posted Aug. 27, 2004
