Human rights - what about our right to water?
17 December 2015
Our Right to Water: Assessing progress five years after the UN recognition of the human rights to Water and Sanitation, reflects on the last five years on and examines whether Canada has fulfilled the UN mandate that declared water was “essential for the full enjoyment of the right to life.” The report examines progress in key areas, including in the courts, in relation to corporate control and influence, in the context of increasing pollution, and in terms of community access and control.
Barlow, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, author of numerous books on water and water policy, and former senior advisor on water to the president of the UN General Assembly, says,
“Governments and communities around the world have vowed to implement the right to water. Yet two and a half billion people still do not have access to basic sanitation. The drinking water advisories in Indigenous communities in Canada are a national shame. And now water cut-offs are hitting low-income people in cities in Europe and the United States.”