Is Water a Human Right? At Upcoming Vote, U.S. Isn't So Sure

According to the U.N., every person on Earth has the right to marry and found a family, to freely express his or her opinion, to earn equal pay for work and enjoy reasonable rest and leisure.

But how useful are those guarantees if you or your child is dying from a waterborne disease? Or if a big corporation is polluting all your town's water, or if China has dried up your stream to build a hydropower dam? What if your tried-and-true seasonal rains are becoming unreliable because our planet is warming?

On July 28, this Wednesday, for the first time since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed 60 years ago, the world's governing body will debate and vote on the crucial question of whether "safe and clean drinking water and sanitation" is a basic human right.

Update: The U.N. voted on Wed. morning to declare water and sanitation is a human right! Read more here.

That this wasn't done years ago is pretty crazy, given that water is basically the only reason humans grew up on Earth and not Mars. What's more staggering are a few facts: 1) Contaminated water has killed more people since World War II than all other combined forms of war and violence. 2) Thirteen percent of the planet lacks access to safe drinking water, and 40 percent - or 2.6 billion people -- lacks proper sanitation.  3) Global warming and world population growth are making this problem worse. By 2030, the World Bank says that water demand will outstrip supply by 40 percent.

As long-time "green" rights advocate, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev says, this humanitarian crisis should "fester" no longer: Water-as-a-human-right is an idea that has finally come of age. One hundred ninety countries have acknowledged this in some form so far, including many developing ones and Bolivia, which introduced the resolution. Even Pepsi, Co., a company not exactly known for its respectful water use, has signed on to the idea.

But still the vote next week has its suspense. The U.S. and Canada and a few other rich countries have balked at the resolution and made excuses to withhold their support. Canada looks kind of silly when, according to The Guardian, it claims it's afraid it will be forced to share its water with the U.S. The Obama administration for its part is sticking to long-held fears of new pressure to send more aid to support this 'new' right. U.S. ambassador Susan Rice has so far tried to pour cold water on vote.

But the fact that our own water debates center around the question of "Evian or tap?", while families in Bangladesh go to the bathroom in their rivers is reason enough for our nation to fully back this movement. And, as water grows more and more scarce, our next wars could very likely be fought over water. Darfur was the world's first 'water war.'

The declaration of the human right to clean water and sanitation will not end this crisis. But it will recast the entire debate.

A things stand now, a "water apartheid" dividing the water 'haves' from the water 'have-nots' is fast setting across the globe. Fresh water is no longer an unlimited, public resource. It is now an increasingly scarce economic commodity, often owned by private companies and traded on "water markets." Without protection of their right to water, the poorest will be the ones to lose out.

I urge you to support Food & Water Watch's call to U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice to vote for the human right to clean water at the United Nations next week. The vote is Wednesday, so act now.

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Photo credit: Woodley Wonderworks