I'm not opposed to people who buy land with water rights being able to exercise those rights for irrigation, etc., in the sense of using ground water. Not damming rivers and streams, or emptying lakes. I'm concerned about the general privatization of water rights, particularly in the third world, where many people cannot afford to buy water.
Do you believe the right to water is unalienable, part of being a human being on this planet, or do you believe it is a commodity to be sold, with only those wealthy enough to afford it being able to survive?
I'm not sure where I heard that statistic about water privatization. I listen to a lot of public radio and see a lot of documentaries.
I'm going to post this report, so that anyone who is interested can read it. Would it be possible for you to take yourself out of your affluent, North American life for a moment and imagine that you live in the third world, and that your wife and daughter spend much of their energy finding and carrying water? Can you be empathetic with these people and see life outside or your perception of supporting corporations?
I'm going to move the water facts and figures from the report right here first because I don't think many westerners are aware of these:
Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights.
Facts and Figures
2.4. billion people in the world, in other words two fifths of the world population, do not have access to adequate health.
1.1. billion people in the world, in other words one sixth of the world population, do not have access to potable water.
2.2. million people in developing countries are dying every year, most of them children, from diseases linked to the lack of access to clean drinking water, inadequate health and poor hygiene.
6000 boys and girls die everyday from diseases linked to the lack of access to clean drinking water, inadequate health and poor hygiene.
The average distance a woman in Africa and Asia walks to collect water is 6 km.
The weight of water that women in Asia and Africa carry on their heads is equivalent to the baggage weight allowed by airlines (20 kg).
In developing countries one person uses an average of 10 liters of water per day. In the United Kingdom, one person uses an average of 135 liters of water everyday.
When you flush the toilet, you are using the same water amount that one person in the Third World uses all day to wash, clean, cook and drink.
In the last ten years, diarrhea has killed more girls and boys than all people who have died since the World War II.
In China, Indonesia, and India, the people dying from diarrhea are double to those dying from HIV/AIDS.
The population of Nairobi, Kenya, pays five times more for one liter of water than does a North American citizen.
The Guatemalan a hand-washing initiative reduced 322,000 deaths from diarrhea in 1998.
1.5. billion people in the world are suffering from parasite infections due to solid waste in the environment, which could be controlled with hygiene, water and sanitation. These infections can cause malnutrition, anemia and delayed growth.
In China, Mexico and Vietnam, communities are practicing ecological healthiness. (Note: I assume these are communities running their own water systems.)
Women and Water Privatization
November 2003
By Ana Elena Obando, WHRnet
Overview
The increase of the global degradation of ecosystems, the excessive consumption of water, contamination and salinization of water-bearings, aquifers and dams, along with the impact of extreme poverty which has been worsened by privatization, are contributing factors to an environmental catastrophe. This has had profound effects on the availability of drinking water and, consequently, has led to the violation of the right to life, safety, food, health and education of billions of human beings.
Water is a fundamental and inalienable human right and a common good that every person and institution of this planet should protect. This resource is, like air, a heritage of humanity and must be declared that way. Water is not merchandize and no person or institution should be allowed to get rich from the sale of it. It should not be privatized, marketed, exported or transferred to a few multinational companies, which today already control 90 percent of privatized water utilities. For the GATT, NAFTA and FTAA, water is a commodity, an investment, a simple service for commercial use and profit.
Women are the most affected by this crisis. More than half of the 1.2 billion people who do not have access to water are women and girls. The IV World Women’s Conference of the United Nations in 1995 contains one chapter in its Action Plan about women and environment in which the right to water was incorporated, although it was not analyzed how the water shortage or contamination disproportionately affect women.
However, later investigations, as the one sponsored by UNIFEM, have verified that “… in most developing countries women are responsible for water management at the domestic and community level. It was also estimated that women and girls use more than 8 hours a day traveling from 10 to 15 km. to transport between 20 and 15 liters of water in each trip”. Men, especially in rural areas, do not play the role of getting or carrying water. Their relation with water has more to do with agricultural work, and with the storage of water. This gender inequality has implications in women’s daily life, from a rights based perspective, since the carrying of water not only causes them physical disorders, but also makes it difficult for them to get involved in activities such as education, income generation, politics, leisure and recreation.
According to a WEDO report, “…Women use vegetation and forests-for medicinal plants, food and fuel, as well as for income generation-but these ecosystems rely on a healthy water supply. As the environment deteriorates, women's livelihoods become increasingly vulnerable.” For example “the availability and placement of toilets has a huge impact on women but in many communities women must walk a long distance to use facilities, often risking their personal safety-there is an increased incidence of sexual and physical assault when toilets are in a remote location. In rural areas where toilets may be unavailable, deforestation and loss of vegetation have forced women and girls to rise earlier and walk further in search of privacy. Toilets are also unavailable for vast numbers of poor women who work in urban centers. About 1 in 10 school-age African girls do not attend school during menstruation or drop out at puberty because of the absence of clean and private sanitation facilities in schools”.
Together with this existing inequality and the consequent violation of almost all human rights, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have imposed the privatization of water services on several countries as a condition to grant them loans. This has serious consequences for the entire population, but for women in particular. Today many people in the world are advocating that water, as a basic right, be excluded from the WTO, FTAA and FTA negotiations. This is because the when water is legally considered a commodity, an investment or a service under international, regional or bilateral agreements, it violates the Agreement on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and other International laws, and it also subjects the entire population of the world to a slow environmental genocide due to the lack of this resource.
The Colombian researcher Mariela Adela Rivera-Santander highlights the consequences of water privatization “… In Cochabamba, Bolivia, water privatization has caused an indiscriminate rate increase of up to 200 percent, whereas in Conakry, Guinea, the increase has been 500 percent in only five years, resulting in a serious impact on the lives of displaced women, girls and boys. She explains how: “...in Colombia and the Philippines when water service is suspended due to nonpayment, women start using contaminated water again, which puts them at risk of having serious illnesses they also spend long hours carrying water, in addition to not being able to cover food, health or education expenses, since they are using that money to pay for the water service …”
Everyone must share water world resources: Economic sectors, interstate jurisdictions and sovereign nations, while respecting the need for a sustainable environment. Women often have the responsibility of using and managing water in the worst conditions, sometimes having to choose between eating or being able to rely on having water for daily chores. Time invested on securing water excludes them from participating in decision-making processes, advocating against poverty and improving their quality of life. Equal access to water and monitoring of water ecosystems to protect this resource and to prevent natural disasters is more than a necessity. It is an urgent human right that cannot be postponed.
It is essential to reassess the economic, social and environmental roles of water and to recognize and value the women’s function as users and managers of water resources. We need to consider the sustainability of environmental resources in the planning, construction, operation and management of main water projects, to evaluate the social impact of the development of water resources, to reestablish the quality and protection of subterranean and surface waters, and to link water policies with other ecosystem policies from a gender perspective.
Human Rights Mechanisms
The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights excluded water as an explicit right. Its explicit inclusion was believed unnecessary given its nature as a resource necessary for basic survival.
Nevertheless, the General Comment #15 on the Articles 11 and 12 on the right to water, adopted in November 2002 by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights explicitly recognized that water is a fundamental human right.
The 145 countries that ratified this Agreement are obliged to progressively ensure that every person has access to safe drinking water, equally and without any discrimination. Obligation to respect this right requires that the States part of this agreement abstain from adopting any conduct that interferes with the enjoyment of this right, such as practices denying equal access to acceptable drinking water or illegally contaminating the water by dumping industrial waste from Government companies. The parties are obliged to protect Human Rights, avoid the interference of third parties in the enjoyment of the right to drinking water. This obligation requires that all parties adopt the necessary measures to guarantee the right to drinking water.
In the Convention for Eradicating Discrimination against Women (1979) is established that rural women’s health depends on adequate and non-discriminatory access to water. Other rights usually not associated with the right to water, but that directly affect women and girls, are the equal right to education and to political participation.
In 1995, during the Fourth World Women’s Conference (Beijing China), the Governments committed in the Beijing Declaration “to
promote the knowledge and favor the investigation of women’s role, particularly in rural and indigenous areas, in watering, land management and cleaning up, by focusing particularly on the knowledge and experience of indigenous women”.
This right is also mentioned in the Children Rights Convention (1989), article 24. Documents about the Earth Summit, produced during the Rio De Janeiro meeting in June 1992.
The UN Millennium Development Goals
In the Ministerial Declaration of the Second World Water Forum, 2000 it was established that the best way to protect the planet's ecosystem is to consider women’s involvement in the planning process, thereby ensuring their participation in issues linked to water and land ownership.
The International Water Conference (Bonn, Germany) establishes that water policies and water management systems must be sensitive to gender issues. Any issues linked to water must deal with the division of labor –with or without remuneration- between men and women. Men and women must participate in the management of sustainable water resources exploitation and in the distribution of benefits in equal conditions. The women’s role in any sphere linked to water must be strengthened and their participation must be broadened”.
The World Summit on Sustainable Development (August 2002).
The Ministerial Declaration of the Third World Water Forum (March 2003)
The Declaration of San Salvador for the defense of the Right to Water.
Sources:
Global Water Partnership, Understanding the Causes of Water Problems
Marcelina White, ¿Cómo afectará el ALCA a la mujer? (“How Will FTAA Affect Women?”), Women's EDGE
UNIFEM, Mujer, Medio Ambiente, Agua: Reflexiones sobre la promoción y protección del derecho de las mujeres al agua (“Women, Environment, Water: Reflections on the Promotion and Protection of Women’s Right to Water”), 24 de marzo del 2003
The Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council, WASH Facts and Figures
WEDO, Conexiones No Escritas: Diferencias de Género en Cuanto al Uso y Manejo del Agua ("Unwritten Connections: Gender Differences Regarding the Use and Management of Water”)
World Water Development Report, El acceso al Agua como Derecho Humano (“Access to Water as a Human Right”) |
