Europe: one million signatures for Water as a Human Right

The first up and running European Citizens Initiative (ECI) ‘Water is a Human
Right’ made history as also being the first ECI in the history of the European Union to have collected over 1 million signatures.  The water initiative aims to get the European Commission  to propose legislation on the human right to water covering the following three issues:

• guaranteed access to water and sanitation services for all EU citizens, including the 2 million currently without access and those threatened with disconnection because they can’t afford to pay their bills
• no liberalisation of water and sanitation services
• more European action to ensure that everyone in the world can enjoy the human right to water and sanitation

While the one million signatures are enough to get the proposals on the European political agenda, a further requirement is to reach a minimum number of signatures in at least seven EU countries. Up to 12 March, five countries have  met this requirement: Austria, Belgium, Germany, Slovakia and Slovenia.  The organisers have collected 1.35 million signatures so far, and aim to get 2 million signatures by September 2013

The organisations behind the water is a human right campaign include the following trade unions and NGOs:

• Aqua Publica Europea
• European Anti Poverty Network (EAPN)
• European Environmental Bureau (EEB)
• European Public Health Alliance (EPHA)
• European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU)
• European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC)
• Public Services International (PSI)
• Social Platform and 
• Women in Europe for a Common Future (WECF).

The ECI is the first transnational instrument of participatory democracy in world history. It is considered to be one of the major innovations of the Treaty of Lisbon.

Watch the campaign video.

Related websites:

• Water is a human right campaign - www.right2water.eu
• Initiative for the European Citizens’ Initiative - www.citizens-initiative.eu

Source: EPSU, 11 Feb 2013 ; EurActiv, 12 Feb 2013 ; right2water, 07 Mar 2013

NGO says international tourism compromises water rights of poor communities

London-based NGO Tourism Concern has launched a campaign to “Demand an end to Water Injustice in Goa”, India

Visitors to Bali, the Gambia and Goa use 16 times as much water as local residents. Such disproportionate use of fresh water by tourists in developing world destinations is causing local conflict, exacerbating poverty and helping to spread disease, says NGO Tourism Concern in a new report [1].

The report examined five coastal destinations popular with international tourists – the Gambia, Bali in Indonesia, the islands of Zanzibar off the coast of Tanzania, and Goa and Kerala in India.

“While hotels may have the money and resources to ensure their guests enjoy several showers a day, swimming pools, a round of golf, and lush landscaped gardens, neighbouring households, small businesses and agricultural producers can regularly endure severe water scarcity,” says the report.

Some hotels in Zanzibar hotels employ security guards to prevent sabotage of water pipes by angry locals who claim they are facing extreme water shortages. A deadly cholera outbreak in 2010 was partly blamed on groundwater contaminated by sewage from hotels.

Tourism Concern is calling on the international tourism industry, destination governments and tourists to urgently address this problem of “massive inequality”. Their report offers nine Principles of Water Equity in Tourism for governments, the tourism sector and civil society, as well as detailed recommendations for each set of stakeholders.

[1]] Noble, R., Smith, P. and Pattullo, P. (eds), 2012. Water equity in tourism : a human right, a global responsibility. London, UK, Tourism Concern. 31 p. Available at: <www.tourismconcern.org.uk/uploads/Campaigns/WET%20Report.pdf>

Related web site: Tourism Concern – Water Equity in Tourism

Source:

• Leo Hickman, Charity condemns tourists’ use of fresh water in developing countries, Guardian, 08 Jul 2012
•  New report reveals massive water inequity between tourism and locals, Tourism Concern, 09 Jul 2012

Rio+20: Canada finally recognises human right to water and sanitation

In the run-up to Rio+20, Canada became one of the last Western nations to drop its opposition to a reference to water and sanitation as a human right in the zero draft outcome document The Future We Want [1]. This was achieved by an international lobby led by the likes of Maude Barlow’s Council of Canadians and UN Special Rapporteur Catarina de Albuquerque.

Maude Barlow. Photo: Council of Canadians

Until a month ago, Canada was the only country to publicly claim there was no legal basis for the right to water and call for deletion of paragraph 67, which referred to this right, from the Rio+20 document, said Anil Naidoo of the Council of Canadians’ Blue Planet Project.

The U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution in July 2010 recognising water and sanitation as a basic human right [2] and on 30 September 2010, the UN Human Rights Council recognised the right as legally binding in international law [3].

At the initial Rio+20 negotiations last year, several human rights and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) warned that the human right to water and sanitation was under threat. This started when the UK, working inside the European Union (EU), first proposed to delete paragraph 67 from the zero draft.

Catarina de Albuquerque. Photo: OHCHR

After pressure from several international NGOs and an appeal [4] by Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation Catarina de Albuquerque, the EU backed down and other governments pushed back against the UK, notably Spain, said Naidoo.

But still, Canada, later joined by the United States and Israel, continued to call for deletion of paragraph 67. Intense lobbying, supported by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay, who called for human rights to be protected in the Rio negotiations [5], finally convinced Canada to drop its opposition to the recognition of water and sanitation as a human right.

[1] Rio+20 - The Future We Want – Zero draft of the outcome document

[2] Right to water and sanitation: UN General Assembly passes landmark resolution, E-Source, 08 Sep 2010

[3] Right to water and sanitation: finally declared legally binding in international law, E-Source, 19 Oct 2010

[4] Rio+20: “Do not betray your commitments on the human right to water and sanitation”, OHCHR, 22 Mar 2012

[5] Navanethem Pillay, Open Letter, OHCHR, 30 Mar 2012

Related web sites:

• Council of Canadians – Right to Water – Blue Planet Project
• OHCHR – Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation

Source: Thalif Deen, Canada, Last Holdout, Drops Opposition to Water as Human Right, IPS, 31 May 2012

World Water Forums: seeking sustainable water management solutions

In March 2012, two global but contrasting forums in search of sustainable solutions to the water crisis took place in Marseilles, France.

The realisation of the human right to water and sanitation was prominent in the declarations of the both the 6^th World Water Forum (WWF) [1] and the Alternative World Water Forum (FAME 2012) [2].  In addition, the WWF6 declaration officially recognised disaster mitigation and emergency response as a priority. Where the WWF6 declaration fell short though, according to the Butterfly Effect, a group of 90 civil society organisations, was that it did not explicitly mention the commitment of states to implement the right to water and sanitation. [3]

Watch the video of the Public-Private debate at WWF6.

While the WWF was home to the water and development industry, FAME 2012 gave a voice to the uncompromising group of anti-privatisation water activists. Loïc Fauchon, head of WWF organiser, the World Water Council, dismissed the alternative forum as “insignificant at best and harmful at worst”. A commentator added that “the pro- and anti-privatisation debate grew stale a long time ago” [4]. As if the anti-privatisation activists anticipated claims that they present infinite criticisms but few alternatives, two new studies [5,6] promoting public management of services have been released.

Watch a video Prof. David McDonald of the Municipal Services Project (MSP) Canada talking about his new publication “Alternatives to Privatization“.

The WWF and FAME 2012 are taking their declarations to Rio+20, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in June. The next World Water Forum will take place in Daegu Gwangyeoksi, South Korea, in 2015.

For more commentaries on the two forums see:

• Babatope Babalobi, How Marseilles hosted two World Water Forums in one week, eWASH, 10 Apr 2012
• Daniel Moss, The right water debates in the wrong place, Huffington Post, 02 April 2012

[1] 6^th World Water Forum – Ministerial Declaration, 13 Mar 2012

[2] Alternative World Water Forum – Declaration, 13 Apr 2012

[3] Butterfly Effect reaction to the 6th World Water Forum ministerial declaration, Freshwater Action Network (FAN), 15 Mar 2012

[4] Claire Provost, No single course for providing water, Guardian Poverty Matters blog, 22 Mar 2012

[5] Pigeon, M. et al. (eds), 2012. Remunicipalisation : putting water back into public hands. Amsterdam: Transnational Institute. Available at: <http://www.tni.org/tnibook/remunicipalisation> [Accessed 14 May 2012]

[6] McDonald, D.A. and Ruiters, G., 2012. Alternatives to privatization : public options for essential services in the global south. Cape Town: HSRC Press. Available at: <http://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/product.php?productid=2287> [Accessed 14 May 2012]

Related news: World Water Forum: water unites but forums divided, E-Source, 03 Apr 2009

Related web sites:

• 6^th World Water Forum – official website | Solutions for Water
• Alternative World Water Forum
• International Secretariat for Water – The Butterfly Effect
•  IRC at the World Water Forum 2012

Right to water: new UN resolution supports sustainable service delivery approach

A new resolution passed by the UN Human Rights Council at its 18th session calls on states to ensure enough financing for sustainable delivery of water and sanitation services. Passed by consensus on 28 September 2011, resolution A/HRC/RES/18/1 has taken last year’s landmark decision [1] to recognise the right to water and sanitation as legally binding in international law, a step further.

Catarina de Albuquerque. Photo: OHCHR

The new resolution is based on ongoing efforts by UN Special Rapporteur Catarina de Albuquerque to get states to go beyond Millennium Development Goals and strive for universal service provision.

States should maximise investments so that:

water and sanitation systems are sustainable and that services are affordable for everyone, while ensuring that allocated resources are not limited to infrastructure, but also include resources for regulatory activities, operation and maintenance, the institutional and managerial structure and structural measures, including increasing capacity

Bolivia’s Evo Morales calls for UN declaration against water privatisation

President of Bolivia, Evo Morales speaking to World Social Forum attendees.

Bolivian President Evo Morales called on African leaders to back a proposed United Nations declaration that would block the sale of public water services to private companies. Speaking at the 2011 World Social Forum in Dakar on February 6th, he said:

We are going to go the UN to declare that water is a basic public need that must not be managed by private interests, but should be for all people, including people of rural areas.

Commenting on Morales’ statement, IATP Senior Policy Analyst Shiney Varghese wrote:

Coming from the president of a nation, this is a very important statement in the international campaign towards the right to water. [...] Given that nearly three-quarters of the “water poor” belong to rural communities, it is high time that international deliberations around the right to water focus on rural communities access to safe water.

At the World Social Forum, water justice activists drafted a “Water Justice Movement Media Statement” in support for Morales’ proposal to “block the sale of public water service to private companies”:

We oppose the dominant economic model that prescribes privatization, commercialization and corporatization of public water and sanitation services. We will counter this type of destructive and non-participatory public sector reform, having seen the outcomes for poor people as a result of rigid cost-recovery practices and the use of pre-paid meters.

The water activists are “looking forward to the next World Water Forum in 2012″ in Marseilles to voice their demands. The media statement was signed by 25 organisations ranging from Food & Water Watch, USA to People’s Coalition for the Right to Water (KRUHA), Indonesia and Zanzibar Water Authority, Tanzania. So far nearly 6,500 people have signed an online petition “Speak Out Against Privatization of Water” petition in support of the Water Justice Movement statement.

Source: Drew Hinshaw, Bloomberg / Business Week, 07 Feb 2011 ; Emily L., Care2.com, 16 Feb 2011 ; Shiney Varghese, Twin Cities Daily Planet, 26 Feb 2011

Canada: First Nations chief wants UN to investigate right to water violation

Geordie Rae from St.Theresa Point First Nation dumps a slop pail full of sewage in a dump outside his home. Winnipeg Free Press

Leaders of First Nations (indigenous peoples) from northern Manitoba want the United Nations to investigate the violations of rights imposed by the lack of water.

Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief David Harper told a Senate committee hearing Tuesday [15 February 2011] the lack of running water in more than 1,000 homes in northern Manitoba is a violation of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People.

Living in “Third World conditions”, families in the Island Lake region of Manitoba “have less water every day than people in refugee camps”.

Many people in the Island Lake region get by on 10 litres per day, usually lugged by family members in pails from local water pipes. Additional water comes in untreated from lakes and rivers that have tested positive for contaminants including E. coli.

The S-11 bill currently being considered by the aboriginal peoples committee of the Senate seeks to regulate water quality on reserves but will not ensure the delivery of clean water to the First Nations families in Manitoba, according to Harper.

The Council of Canadians called for the scrapping of Bill S-11 and the development of new legislation. The Council says that the ACT is flawed because First Nation communities were not consulted and there is a risk that water systems could be privatised.

On 14 January 2011, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Manitoba held a awareness raising event, Just Water, to highlight the poor living conditions in Manitoba’s Island Lake communities.

“Our concern is that the lack of clean water and adequate sewage (disposal) in many homes is a severe health hazard for the First Nations people in the Island Lake communities — people who are our neighbours, fellow citizens and, as descendants of the original inhabitants of Canada, with whom we share a treaty,” MCC executive director Peter Rempel said.

Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO), Manitoba’s northern chiefs association, is calling for CA$ 35 million (US$ 36 million) to install plumbing in the 1,000 homes around Island Lake and on other northern reserves.

The 2006 report of the Expert Panel on Safe Drinking Water for First Nations urged rapid action by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada to help communities without running water.

Four years later, Island Lake communities are still waiting. The logistical challenges of digging water and sewage lines are probably the reason for the delay, said Harry Swain, the report’s author.

Related web sites:

• Winnipeg Free Press – No Running Water
• Council of Canadians – Safe Water for First Nations
• Government of Canada – Safe Drinking Water for First Nations
• MCC Manitoba – Aboriginal Neighbours Program

Source: Mia Rabson, First Nations to alert UN to water woes, Winnipeg Free Press, 16 Feb 2011 ; Alexandra Paul, Third World aid agency looks north, Winnipeg Free Press, 07 Jan 2011 ; Council of Canadians, 09 Mar 2011

UN Human Rights Council affirms that right to water and sanitation is legally binding

The UN Human Rights Council has finally recognised the right to water and sanitation as legally binding in international law, in a landmark decision adopted on 30 September 2010.

[T]he UN affirmed [...] by consensus that the right to water and sanitation is derived from the right to an adequate standard of living, which is contained in several international human rights treaties. While experts working with the UN human rights system have long acknowledged this, it was the first time that the Human Rights Council has declared itself on the issue.

According to the UN Independent Expert on human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque, “this means that for the UN, the right to water and sanitation, is contained in existing human rights treaties and is therefore legally binding”. She added that “this landmark decision has the potential to change the lives of the billions of human beings who still lack access to water and sanitation.”

Human rights: obligations related to private and other non-state service provision in water and sanitation

The human rights framework does not express a preference for public or private models for the provision of water and sanitation services, as long as the human rights to water and sanitation are guaranteed. This is one of the main conclusions of the latest report [1] by the UN Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation, Ms. Catarina de Albuquerque. She calls for a more nuanced, less ideological and emotional, debate that acknowledges that wide variety of actors and arrangements, which are rarely exclusively public or private, in service delivery.

Ms De Albuquerque has a three-year mandate (2008-2011) to provide recommendations on the right to water and sanitation to the UN Human Rights Council. Each year she focuses on one or more specific issues. For 2010 Ms De Albuquerque chose the contentious issue of private sector participation in the provision of water and sanitation services.

General Assembly declares access to clean water and sanitation is a human right

After more than 15 years of contentious debate on the issue, the United Nations General Assembly has passed a historical resolution (64/L.63/Rev.1) declaring “the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights”.

In the non-binding text, the 192-member Assembly also called on UN Member States and international organizations to offer funding, technology and other resources to help poorer countries scale up their efforts to provide clean, accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation for all. This clause appeared to put the onus of rectifying the situation on rich countries, a Reuters report suggested.