UN declares access to water a fundamental human right.

Access to safe water and basic sanitation is an essential human right, declared the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) in a vote held on July 28th 2010 at the organization's offices in New York and which shows the concern about the situation that nearly 900 million people worldwide without accessing to clean water sources.The right to potable water and sanitation is intrinsically linked to the rights to life, health, food and housing.

It is the responsibility of States to ensure these rights to all its citizens, especially among low-income communities. It is a fact that 884 million people worldwide don’t have access to potable water and over 2.6 billion don’t have basic sanitation. Studies also indicate that about 1.5 million children less than five years old die and 443 million lessons are lost every year on the planet because of illnesses related to drinking water and the precariousness of basic sanitation services.

It quivers at the end of a leaf in the Amazon. Rushes thousands of miles to the Gulf of Mexico. Tumbles from the sky above the Serengeti. Sits heavy and quiet at the frozen poles. Water is the blood of the biosphere—the affinity between hydrogen and oxygen that makes the Earth, as we know it, possible.

But like the rest of the planet, it's finite. And that means it's valuable—and worth celebrating. As we come to terms with advancing deserts and drying aquifers, it's time we fall in love with the simple bundle of atoms that makes the world possible. (http://www.yesmagazine.org/arts/its-everybodys-water)


In the Universal Declaration of Water Rights, established by the UN, the main approaches are:

- We should be responsible for saving water, because this is an essential condition of life;
-  It is a world heritage, and we all are  responsible for their safekeeping;

-  Drinking water should be used sparingly, because thetreatment resources are still scarce and slow;
-  The balance of the planet depends on the preservation of rivers, seas and oceans, as well as the natural cycles of water;
- We should be responsible for the future generations;
-  We need to use it knowing that we should not pollute it or poison it;
- Mankind should be caring, avoiding its waste and striving forbalance in nature.

With this document, the United Nations made ​​it mandatory that all citizens are responsible for water quality, as well as their maintenance and thus, ways to ensure the improvement of life on the planet.

But I think that before being  mandatory, it is a matter of consciousness. Laws can be broken, but life is only one... If we waist it we won't have another chance.