Access to water is a right, says UN report
Access to water resources should be recognised as a human right by governments all over the world as the scarcity of water is the gravest threat to sustained human development, according to the United Nations' 2006 Human Develop-ment Report.
The "Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crisis" report of the UN Develop-ment Programme (UNDP), re-leased yesterday, urges governments to realise one of the biggest challenges of how to manage water resources faced with competition and climate change to meet rising food needs, while protecting the access of poor and vulnerable people. The report says poor farmers around the planet face a potentially catastrophic water crisis from the combination of climate change and competition for scarce water resources. According to the report, climate change threatens to intensify the lack of water on an unprecedented scale and many of the world' s most water-stressed areas will get less water, and flows will become less predictable and more subject to extreme events. As a result, water is expected to be less available in many countries in South Asia, East Asia and Latin America. In Bangkok yesterday, Hakan Bjorkman, programme director of UNDP Thailand, pointed out the cruel irony that "for the rich water is clean and cheap, for the poor water is dirty and expensive". He mentioned the situation in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, where poor people in slum areas pay five to 10 times more per litre of water than wealthy people living in the same city. As a starting point to cope with the problem, the report advocates all governments to go beyond vague constitutional principles and enable legislation to ensure the human right to a secure, accessible and affordable supply of water. Moreover, it recommends all governments to prepare national plans for accelerating progress in water and sanitation, with ambitious targets backed by financing and clear strategies for overcoming inequalities. Thailand is mentioned, as it will be affected by the loss of freshwater in the river delta system as a result of rising sea levels. Conflicts over water consumers are also predicted. The report urges the Thai government to secure farmers' rights to use water resources. The Maetaeng irrigation system in Chiang Mai, where farmers are protesting against the municipal authorities who want to transfer water to cope with the rising demand of urban and industrial users, is mentioned as an example of "when water is in short supply the powerful get it and the weak don't". Bjorkman cited the ongoing Royal Flora Ratchapruek Expo as an inappropriate use of water. Farmers downstream of the Maetaeng irrigation canal are now worried that the expo, which needs 2,000 cubic metre of water every day, will cause a lack of water during the dry season. They have called on the government to tackle the problem before it actually occurs.
Pennapa Hongthong The Nation
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