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Disease and death are rife among the one billion people worldwide who don't have access to clean drinking water. Helen Taylor sees what the World Water Forum can do to help
Water, water everywhere
It’s a shocking fact that, in the technologically advanced 21st century,
more than one billion people don’t even have access to clean drinking
water.
The 3rd annual World Water Forum will have its work cut out this year.
Meeting in Japan from 16-23 March, its delegates must finally begin to
tackle the staggering inequality of water provision throughout the world.
While those of us in the west can swig mineral water at will and shower
several times a day, a staggering 2.4 billion people don’t even have
basic sanitation and more than 1.1 billion are still without safe drinking
water. And if current international apathy continues, the situation can
only worsen over the coming years.
A lack of clean water and adequate sanitation means one thing only –
disease and death. It is an almost ludicrously simple equation that seems
to have escaped most world leaders.
In the year 2000 alone, 2.2 million people – most of them children
under five – died from water related diseases, nearly half of them
from malaria.
So what is to be done?
At last year’s World Summit in Johannesburg, UN secretary general
Kofi Annan said that the issue of water and sanitation was one of the
five key areas which warranted immediate global attention. And 2003 has
been declared the International Year of Fresh Water by the United Nations.
In addition, in November last year, the UN committee on economic social
and cultural rights issued a statement outlining an international human
right to water. This puts an obligation on all governments to extend universal
access to sufficient, affordable, accessible and safe water supplies and
to safe sanitation, without discrimination.
Water has not been recognised as a human right before. And, although the
UN’s statement is not international law, it clearly outlines the
obligations and responsibilities of governments.
However, it remains to be seen whether world leaders can rise to the very
urgent challenge of providing adequate clean water and sanitation for
all.
Recognising the need to keep the issue at the top of the political agenda,
UNISON is sending a delegation to the World Water Forum along with sister
trade unionists in 
Public
Services International.
John Kidd, chair of UNISON’s water and environment service group
executive, and the group’s vice chair Dawn Timothy will be using
the event as an opportunity to press home the union’s anti-privatisation
message.
UNISON takes the issue of water very seriously. As well as being a key
union representing workers in the water industry in Britain, it has a
history of campaigning against the privatisation of water throughout the
world.
Speaking just before he left for Japan, Mr Kidd stressed that the liberalisation
of water markets through GATS was not a solution to the world’s water
problems and called for public partnerships to be given a chance.
He also argued that international aid was crucial in the short term, to
guard against the potential for multinational companies to invest in the
more lucrative services and ignore less profitable ones.
“Multinationals cannot go into developing countries and cherry pick
water contracts and ignore sanitation,” explained Mr Kidd. “There’s
lots of money to be made in the delivery of fresh water. The treatment
of waste water is more difficult. Water and sanitation must go together.”
Ms Timothy will be using the Forum to highlight the gender dimension of
the water issue. With women and children largely responsible for the collection
of water, cooking and the washing of clothes, they are disproportionately
affected by the current inadequate provision.
And UNISON also sees the Forum as an opportunity to raise their concerns
with the UK government. Environment minister Michael Meacher is expected
to be in Japan and will be meeting with the union during the event.
A positive outcome at the World Water Forum could make an immeasurable
difference in the lives of billions of people. And this year’s Forum
is yet another opportunity for governments around the world to begin to
address the global inequality of water provision. But it remains to be
seen whether this most basic human right will finally be respected.
Contact the article's author Helen Taylor
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