Water is a source of life and a natural resource that sustains our environments and supports livelihoods. Access to water for life is a basic human need and a fundamental human right.

“The principle of the universal destination of goods also applies naturally to water, considered in the Sacred Scriptures as a symbol of purification (cfPs51:4;Jn 13:8) and of life (cf Jn3:5; Gal 3:27). ‘As a gift from God, water is a vital element essential to survival; thus, everyone has a right to it’.”
 
Despite this however, the 2006 United Nations Human Development Report notes the following:
• Approximately 1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water.
Almost two in three people lacking access to clean water survive on less than $2 a day, with one in three living on less than $1 a day.
• Access to piped water into the household averages about 85% for the wealthiest 20% of the population, compared with 25% for the poorest 20%.
• 1.8 billion people who have access to a water source within one kilometre, but not in their house or yard, consume around 20 litres per day. In the United Kingdom the average person uses more than 50 litres of water a day flushing toilets (where average daily water usage is about 150 litres a day.
• The loss of 443 million school days each year from water-related illness.
• Close to half of all people in developing countries suffer at any given time from a health problem caused by water and sanitation deficits.
• Millions of women spend several hours a day collecting water.
• 400 million children (1 in 5 from the developing world) have no access to safe water. 1.4 million children will die each year from lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation
• A mere 12 percent of the world’s population uses 85 percent of its water, and these 12 percent do not live in the Third World.

“Already, corporations own or operate water systems across the globe that bring in about $200 billion a year. Yet they serve only about 7 percent of the world’s population, leaving a potentially vast market untapped.”

What is clear is that“inadequate access to safe drinking water affects the well-being of a huge number of people and is often the cause of disease, suffering, conflicts, poverty and even death.”

For some, this global water crisis is about absolute shortages of physical supply. However, the UNDP report rejects this view. It argues that the roots of the crisis in water can be traced to poverty, inequality and unequal power relationships, as well as flawed water management policies that exacerbate that scarcity.
 
Some key issues identified in this water crisis included firstly, for some countries water is not treated as a political priority as evidenced by poor budgetary allocations.

Secondly, some of the world’s poorest people are paying some of the world’s highest prices for water, reflecting the limited coverage of water utilities in the slums and informal settlements where people live.

Also very importantly is that the international community has failed to prioritise water. Underlying each of these problems is that those persons suffering most do not have a political voice needed to assert their claims to water.

Despite the progress made over the years in the areas of water and sanitation, there has been a lack of a concerted drive to extend water and sanitation for all through well-designed and properly financed national plans, backed by a global plan of action to galvanise political will and mobilise resources.

“Satisfying the needs of all, especially of those who live in poverty, must guide the use of water and the services connected with it. For a suitable solution to this problem, it ‘must be set in context in order to establish moral criteria based precisely on the value of life and the respect for the rights and dignity of all human beings’.”

“By its very nature water cannot be treated as just another commodity among many, and it must be used rationally and in solidarity with others. The distribution of water is traditionally among the responsibilities that fall to public agencies, since water is considered a public good.

If water distribution is entrusted to the private sector it should still be considered a public good. The right to water, as all human rights, finds its basis in human dignity and not in any kind of merely quantitative assessment that considers water as a merely economic good. Without water, life is threatened. Therefore, the right to safe drinking water is a universal and inalienable right.”

Next we look at why we may have to adopt new lifestyles to ensure environmental sustainability and to protect the environment.

Quotations in these articles are from the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, Persons interested in purchasing a copy of the Compendium can contact the Justice Desk, Archbishop’s House at 622-6680. Also on sale at the Justice Desk are the Take a Bite Social Justice Programme on DVD and the Responses to 101 Questions on Catholic Social Teaching.