2. It’s A Question of Human Rights
• And It’s In Debate
• It Involves Choices, Money and
Political Power
• Health and Personal Opportunity.
• Wealth and Poverty

3. Perspective
Take A Look At Some
Scenes From Around
the World

12. These are all people merely
doing what they have to do to
get a drink of water.
A lot more than turning a tap.

13. On Their Own
• These People Are A Long Way From St.
Edward’s University
• They Might Have A Human Right to Water.
• But They Are Largely On Their Own.
• We’re Talking About Billions of People

14. Global Water
Around the world,
the statistics
are horrendous.

15. Those Without Water
• At least 1 billion people
do not know where their
next drink of water is
coming from.
• Nearly one-seventh of the
people on earth.
• Most live in developing
countries. They are poor.

16. No Toilets
More than twice as many people, a
staggering 2.6 billion, do not have
toilets.
Not good toilets;
Not flush toilets;
No toilets.

17. Children Suffer Most
• Children under
5 become
quickly become
dehydrated.
• Often, before their parents realize
how sick they are, they are dead.
• Each year 1.8 million people die as a
result of diarrhea and other water-
borne diseases. Nearly 5,000 deaths
a day, mostly children.

18. It’s Even Worse
• People who have been working on water
problems all their lives say that the real
number of people without routine access to
clean drinking water may be as high as 3 or 4
billion.

19. How The Counters Count
• That’s because the United Nations standard is
that only those without water piped into their
houses or their villages are counted as not
having access.
• The problem, the experts say, is that much of
the piped water around the world is swarming
with bacteria and parasites.

20. The Problem
• Historically When Governments Have Spent
Money on Public Projects It Often Has Been
for Things Like Roads and Bridges and
Hospitals;
• Things that are good for ribbon-cutting
ceremonies, photo opportunities.

21. Not A Priority
• Water Has Not
Been A Priority
• It Can Seem
Mundane. The
Wealthy Just Buy
What They Need. So
It’s No Problem For
Them.

22. But It Should Be
• Water Is A Big Factor In Life
• In Some Places Women Use Up A Lot of Time
Walking For Water
• People Are Routinely Sick Because of Their
Water
• Adults Miss Work; Children Miss School

23. Water And Poverty
• Water Problems and
Poverty Go Together.
Both Often Largely
Invisible.
• No One Actually Goes
Without It. You Don’t
See Bodies Piling Up.
Rarely A Commotion.

24. ANOTHER Way To Say Poverty
• The Water Problem Often Looks More Like
Chronic Poverty than What It Really Is: A
Water Problem

25. Pushing For Human Rights
• About 10 Years Ago A Few People Around The
World Got An Idea.
• If They Could Establish That Clean Drinking
Water and Simple Toilets Were Fundamental
Human Rights, Maybe They Could Create
Pressure on Governments to Seriously Address
The Problem.

27. The Status Quo
• For A Long Time, You Could Ask Almost
Anyone About Human Rights And Water And
They’d Say, Of Course It’s A Human Right
• But That Was An Assumption, Nothing Binding
• The Idea, Starting 10 years or So Ago, Was To
Add The Force Of Law To The Assumption

28. Lots Of Debate
• Certain Countries, Including
the United States and
Canada, Did Not Want
Formal Recognition.
• The United States worried that it would have
to pay to help other countries solve their
water problems. It wouldn’t be a matter of
choice. It would be mandatory.

29. O Canada
• Canada, Which Has More Good, Clean Fresh
Water Than Almost Any Other Place, Worried
That With The Creation of a New International
Law, Canada Would Have to Share Its Water.

30. Along Came This Woman
• Catarina De
Albuquerque,
• Portuguese
Lawyer
• United Nations
specialist on
Human Rights
and Water, the
Independent
Expert

31. She Wanted Action
• I Talked with Her in Sweden in
September During An Annual
Meeting Of Water Experts Called
World Water Week
• She Told Me: “We Have to Stop
Talking About it – Talking About
Whether the Right Exists or Not.
• “The Right Exists.
• “Put Your Energy into Making it
Real.”

32. Some Big Developments
• Just This Year Some Good Things Have
Happened. And Catarina De Albuquerque
Had a Lot to Do With it.
• In July the General Assembly of the
United Nations, for the first time,
adopted a resolution Saying that Access
to Clean Drinking Water Was A Human
Right.

33. More Big Developments
• In September, Just a Few Weeks Ago, the
Human Rights Council of the United Nations In
Geneva, Concluded That Access to Water Was
A Human Right Under Existing United Nations
Provisions.
• The Council Said No New Law Was Needed –
Just the Opposite of The Trend That Began 10
Years Ago.
• The Council Is Not As Important As the
General Assembly. But It Is Still Important.

35. Impact
• It Looked Like She Was
Having An Impact
• But Maybe Not

36. The Voting
• The Vote In July Showed A Lot Of Support For
Water As A Human Right
• But A Lot of Important Players Abstained From
Voting, Including the United States and
Canada
• The Vote was 122 Yeses, 41 Abstentions
• 29 Countries Did Not Participate In The Vote

37. Good News & Bad News
• The Good News Is That The Assumption That
Access To Clean Drinking Water Is A Human
Right Has Been Strengthened
• 122 Countries Are Now On Record In Support
• The Bad News Is that We’re Still Working With
Assumptions.

38. The Debate
• The Last Decade of Debate Has Been Over
Creating Concrete Rules That Would Force
Nations of the World to do the Right Thing.
• More and More Countries Have Been Getting
on Board. But It Was Still Not Unanimous and
Catarina Was Pushing To Move On.

39. Gambling
• Catarina De Albuquerque Seemed to Be
Gambling That There Was Now Enough
Momentum, Enough Attention on Water, That
She Could Get Something Done.

40. Back To Square One?
• Maybe.
• Maybe Not.
• One Interpretation Is That Those Who See
Water As A Human Right Have Been Out-
Maneuvered
• To Me, We’re Very Close to Being Back to
Square One. It’s A Good Idea But It’s Not
Mandatory

41. The Obama Factor
• President Obama Favors
Doing More on Water.
• I was very optimistic when I
heard him talking about
water in his inaugural
speech.

42. The Obama Factor
I know he cares about water
and the environment. But
the way things are going
now I don’t know how much
of a force for change he’s
going to be.

43. It’s A Big Problem
• There is Surely a Lot of Work to Be Done.
• Getting Everyone Access to Clean Drinking
Water and Decent Toilets Seems A Long Way
Off. And the Countries Where Things Are
Worst Are the Poorest.

44. • Maybe We’ll See Some Progress. I Hope So.
• But It’s A Work in Progress.
• In the Meantime, Lots of Women and
Children Are Going to Keep Spending Too
Much of Their Days
• Walking,
• And Walking,
• And Walking.

45. • To Fetch A Pail of Water
• Rajiv Singha flickr

46. The End