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In Historic Vote, UN Declares Water a Fundamental Human Right |
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Posted 8/2/2010 at 3:55 PM by Chanti C in Community Blog
Affiliate: Pacific Northwest |
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Last Thursday, the UN declared water a "fundamental human right."
While forty countries abstained from voting, there were no votes against the resolution. One hundred and twenty-two countries supported the resolution.
Pablo Solon, Boliva's ambassador to the United Nations, said:
"At the global level, approximately one out of every eight people do not have drinking water. In just one day, more than 200 million hours of the time used by women is spent collecting and transporting water for their homes. The lack of sanitation is even worse, because it affects 2.6 billion people, which represents 40 percent of the global population. According to the report of the World Health Organization and of UNICEF of 2009, which is titled "Diarrhoea: Why Children Are [Still] Dying and What We Can Do," every day 24,000 children die in developing countries due to causes that can be prevented, such as diarrhea, which is caused by contaminated water. This means that a child dies every three-and-a-half seconds. One, two, three. As they say in my village, the time is now."
Yes! Magazine reports that 36 U.S. states expect to face water shortages by 2013.
To listen to a clip about the break down of this resolution, featuring water justice advocate Maude Barlow, click here.
To read about PeaceJam's Global Call to Action Issue, Equal Access to Water and Other Natural Resources click here. |
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