Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Istanbul (Agenzia Fides) – Water is a fundamental human right. This was the conclusion of the fifth World Water Forum in Istanbul, which concluded yesterday, March 22. The main focus of the summit in the Turkish capital was the definition of water as a human right. No agreement was reached, but it has been a small step forward in the right direction. There is still no talk of it being a fundamental human right, but the interests and concerns about this important resource for human life and for the very survival of the planet begin to concentrate and unite forces. The issue of water brings together various factors: the human need, the hygienic-health aspect, and the agricultural and environmental needs, i.e. the very life-chain itself.
“Sharing Water, Sharing Opportunities” was the theme for World Water Day, which was celebrated yesterday, March 22, coinciding with the closing of the World Water Forum in Istanbul. The six-day event, organized by the World Water Council, part of the World Bank, was attended by 20,000 people, including Heads of State, Foreign Affairs Ministers (nearly 180 took part in the workshops), representatives of international institutions and environmental organizations.
The concluding document from the great meeting in Istanbul speaks of the “urgent need” to fight the lack of water and acknowledges the right to “an improvement in hygienic-health conditions” so that an important step can be made in “diminishing the number of deaths linked to a lack of water in the world.” The right to access to water, claimed by various countries and civil society organizations has still not been considered as such. In fact, the debate over “blue gold” is a complex one. When the water-resource question is considered on an international governing level, there is inevitably cause for division among countries; the “right” to water implies that it is a public good, and therefore, not subject to privatization or economic ends. And in this area, problems inevitably arise.
The numbers according to the Forum show that it is a resource that runs the risk of becoming a precious item in the survival of the human species in the next two decades, also due to the fact that the disparity between rich and poor nations in this area is truly impressive. For example, the average amount of available water for each inhabitant in the United States is 425 liters per day, while in Madagascar it is 10 liters. In Italy it is 237, while in France it is 150. The estimated average rate of water consumption for a family in the Western nations is at over 300 liters per day, while the rate takes a drastic fall to 20 liters for an African family. One out of every two inhabitants in the world (around 3 billion people) lives in a house without plumbing. One out of every five (1.2 billion people) do not have sufficient drinking water, which means that over 1 billion people drink water that is unsafe. There are 3.4 million people that die each year from diseases transmitted through water.
Although Europe seems to be immune to such a crisis, it too is affected by the emergency situation: 16% of water is not potable, 140 million Europeans do not have access to clean water and sanitary services. The areas that are hardest hit are the so-called “sub-region B” countries: from Albania to Georgia, Montenegro to Macedonia, over 11,000 children under 14 years of age die every year. The World Health Organization explains that although a person can survive without food for a month, without water, they cannot survive more than a week. The minimum biological requirement for one person to survive is 5 liters every 24 hours. However, the WHO claims that in order to speak of acceptable life conditions, no less than 50 liters of water each day for each person is needed, and anything less is a situation of suffering (40% of the population lives in impossible sanitary conditions). In light of this situation, the United Nations has issued a statement recalling that by 2030, about half of the world population could suffer from thirst. (Mtp) (Agenzia Fides 23/3/2009)
