UN Expert: Speed Up Efforts To Achieve Human Rights To Water And Sanitation

Ten years after the UN explicitly recognised water and sanitation as a human right, billions of people lack safe drinking water and sanitation, a UN expert has warned.

“The coronavirus pandemic has taught us that leaving behind the people most in need of water and sanitation services can lead to a humanitarian tragedy,” said Léo Heller, Special Rapporteur on the human rights to water and sanitation. “Over the next 10 years, the human rights to water and sanitation must be a priority if we are to build just and humane societies.”

He issued a statement on the anniversary of adoption on 28 July 2010 of UN General Assembly Resolution 64/292. Since then 193 States have committed to ensure access to safe drinking water and to sanitation for all. They explicitly reaffirmed their commitment to the human rights to water and sanitation in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, whose Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and improve the lives and prospects of everyone.

“The glass is half-empty and it is also half-full. The progress made since 2010 may show a slow pace in the implementation of the human rights to water and sanitation but, indeed, the UN General Assembly resolution, as a starting point, triggered some initiatives and inspired several creative developments,” said Léo Heller.

Although much has been achieved in the last 10 years, Heller said, countries are not on track to meet by 2030 the goals related to water, sanitation and hygiene. One in three people on our planet still lack access to safe drinking water and more than half of the global population lack access to safe sanitation. Some three billion people lack basic handwashing facilities with soap and water, and more than 673 million people still practice open defecation. This unacceptable situation causes 432,000 deaths from diarrhea every year.

“The commitments of the 2030 Agenda are a driver to ‘leave no one behind’ but it will not suffice if countries approach the targets and goals merely as a quantitative exercise, leaving the human rights to water and sanitation to the side.”

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