Water: 1 in 4 without safe access. Arrojo-Agudo: the real figure is double that.
The defence of the right to water is growing, but the UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to water warns: financialisation strategies are difficult to stop. By Giorgio Kaldor for RM – Renewable Matter.
Fifteen years after the historic UN resolution that established access to safe drinking water and sanitation as a fundamental human right, the global picture of access to this resource continues to show serious imbalances. A new joint report by the WHO and UNICEF estimates that 2.1 billion people worldwide still do not have access to safe water, with inequalities particularly evident in low-income countries, rural areas and the most fragile contexts.
According to some estimates, the actual number could be as high as twice that. Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, explains this to Renewable Matter:
“At the same time, however, awareness and defence of the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation have clearly grown, fuelling movements that reject privatisation and promote democratic water governance. However, new strategies for the financialisation of water are emerging, part of a broader process on the entire economy, which is much harder to resist.”
