Human Right to Water

More than a billion people in the developing world lack safe drinking water – an amenity those in the developed
world take for granted. Some 2.6 billion people live without access to adequate sanitation systems necessary
for reducing exposure to water-related diseases. The failure of the international aid community, nations, and local
organizations to satisfy these basic human needs has led to substantial, unnecessary, and preventable human
suffering.

The Pacific Institute argues that access to a basic water requirement is a fundamental human right implicitly and
explicitly supported by international law, declarations, and State practice. Governments, international aid agencies,
non-governmental organizations, and local communities should work to provide all humans with a basic water requirement and to guarantee that water as a human right. By acknowledging a human right to water and expressing the willingness to meet this right for those currently deprived of it, the water community would have a useful tool for addressing one of the most fundamental failures of 20th century development.

In April of 2008 the South African High Court in Johannesburg delivered a groundbreaking decision that awarded water rights to the poor, the first in which the constitutional right to water has explicitly been raised. The judge made explicit reference to written testimony from the Pacific Institute on the human right to water and basic water needs.

Institute President Peter Gleick offers a statement to work with existing human rights declarations: "All human beings have an inherent right to have access to water in quantities and of a quality necessary to meet their basic needs. This right shall be protected by law." Read more in The Human Right to Water.