Water
is a Basic Human Right
22 March 2004
Water is life and life is water.
Water is indispensable for lives of all living creatures of nature. More
than just being a need, water is a basic human right.
Access to water
Access to a basic water requirement
is a fundamental human right implicitly supported by our law and international
instruments. The Water Act of 2003 states that all water found naturally
in Swaziland is a national resource and there shall be no private right
of property in any water found naturally. Similarly, the Swaziland National
Draft Constitution confirms the same.
Human rights to Water
What are the implications
of a human right to water? How much water is necessary to satisfy this
right? Enough solely to sustain life. A true minimum human need for water
can only be defined as the amount needed to maintain human survival, to
meet basic needs for drinking, cooking and fundamental domestic uses. Everybody
has a right to water, irrespective of race, colour, gender, social and
or economic status etc. However, a right to water does not imply a right
to an unlimited amount of water.
If we accept that there is
a human right to water, to what extent does government have an obligation
to provide that water to citizens? While the many international declarations
and formal conference statements supporting a right to water do not directly
require states to meet individual water requirements, in certain circumstances,
however, when individuals are unable to meet basic needs for reasons beyond
their control, including disaster, economic impoverishment, age, disability,
government must provide for basic needs. Meeting this minimum need should
take precedence over other allocations of spending for economic development.
The overall economic and social benefits of meeting basic water needs far
outweigh the costs of providing for the problems that result from the water
shortage.
Violation of human right
to water
If water is a basic human
right yet some people cannot access it, there is therefore a dispossession
of rights. Companies around the Matsapha Industrial area have rendered
the Lusushwana River, which sustains downstream communities for domestic
water and aquatic life, unusable as a result of pollution. This is infringing
the basic right to water. When industries dispose of their untreated effluents
in rivers that are consumed downstream, it is ruthless and infact criminal.
Polluted and contaminated water results in epidemic diseases, physical
and mental health related problems to human being and animals as well.
Who are the biggest water
consumers?
A large proportion of our
water resources have been damned and or channelled to sustain industries
and commercial agriculture at the expense of communities. A working tool
in this situation should be the "some for all rather than all for some"
approach. It is said that the test of our progress is not whether we add
more to the abundance of those who have much, but it is whether we provide
enough for those who have little.
Water is a limited natural
resource and public good fundamental for life and health. The human right
to water is indispensable for leading a life in human dignity. It is a
prerequisite for the realization of other human rights. The human right
to water entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physical, accessible
and affordable water for personal and domestic uses.
Watch this column for more
articles on water and development in Swaziland.
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