In November 2006 The UK government announced in response to the UN’s latest Human Development Report – Beyond Scarcity: power, poverty and the global water crisis - that it ‘recognises the human right to water’. Although the right to water and sanitation is already recognised in international law it is often implicit and therefore open to interpretation. The UK was commended by Rights and Humanity for taking ‘a leadership’ role with regard to this issue. However recognising the right and actively ensuring everything possible is being done to make provision for that right are very different things. ‘walking4water’ wants to remind the government in this country of the responsibility they have to continue to provide a wider global leadership on water and sanitation issues. There are still governments who fudge the issue so we must be strong in our stance and consistent in our efforts to fight this injustice.
Matthew Parris
“I’d never really believed in overseas aid. I was born and raised in sub-Saharan Africa. I’ve seen the expensive machinery sent by kindly Europeans, rusting among villagers who, when it broke, couldn’t fix it. I’ve spoken to the well-meaning English bank managers off for a summer “digging a well in Tanzania” – as if the thing rural Africa was short of was unskilled labour... click here to read or listen to quote in full
“Aid agencies, Western celebrities, rock stars and politicians cannot save Africa. Only Africans can develop Africa. Outsiders can help but only if they understand it, work with it.”
(Richard Dowden - Africa)
"It is now time to consider access to safe drinking water and sanitation as a human right, defined as the right to equal and non-discriminatory access to a sufficient amount of safe drinking water for personal and domestic uses—drinking, personal sanitation, washing of clothes, food preparation and personal and household hygiene—to sustain life and health. States should prioritize these personal and domestic uses over other water uses and should take steps to ensure that this sufficient amount is of good quality, affordable for all and can be collected within a reasonable distance from a person's home." (Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights) |
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