Water is a Human Right

Water and sanitation are a human right!

Water is a public good, not a commodity. We invite the European Commission to propose legislation implementing the human right to water and sanitation as recognised by the United Nations, and promoting the provision of water and sanitation as essential public services for all. The EU legislation should require governments to ensure and to provide all citizens with sufficient and clean drinking water and sanitation. We urge that:

The EU institutions and Member States be obliged to ensure that all inhabitants enjoy the right to water and sanitation.
Water supply and management of water resources not be subject to ‘internal market rules’ and that water services are excluded from liberalisation.
The EU increases its efforts to achieve universal access to water and sanitation.

German water workers concerned about future of water services

Several hundred trade union and works council representatives of Germany’s water companies organized a demonstration to demand that water is taken out of the concessions directive.

The right to water vs CEO of Nestle (part II)

(16 May 2013) Nestle CEO Brabeck no longer claims that water is Not a human right following recent controversy

“Solange wir schweigen, sind wir die Komplizen der Mörder” (As long as we remain silent, we are the accomplices of murders)

(15 MAy 2013) Jean Ziegler, former UN special rapporteur on the right to food, speaks about privatisation of water and the need for civil society to speak out for peoples’ rights

Thessaloniki Citizens’ Initiative 136 together with other groups bid for water company

(13 May 2013) A new success for the groups that oppose the privatisation of the Thessaloniki water company.

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Supporting organisations

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FYEG

European Trade Union Confederation

European Environmental Bureau

European Public Health Alliance

European Federation of Public Service Unions

European Anti-Poverty Network

Aqua Publica Europea

Social Platform

Women in Europe for a Common Future

Ambassadors

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Erik SWYNGEDOUW

Professor, Manchester University, UK: "Water is not just a human right, access to water is a matter of democratic equality".

Mr. Enrique FOSSOUL

General Secretary

General Secretary FSC.CCOO Trade Union (Spain): "El agua es el recurso mayor en el planeta y el peor repartido. Mil cien millones de personas no acceden a ella".

Luc HAMELINCK

President

President ACV-CSC Services publics (Belgium): "I sign for the Human Right to Water"

Meindert VAN DEN BERG

ABVAKABO FNV Trade Union (Netherlands): “A dignified life starts with water”

Jean-Jacques JESPERS

Journalist and Professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium)

Journalist and Professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium): "L'eau tombe du ciel, et c'est heureux car sans elle la vie n'existerait pas. On peut y voir un cadeau de Dieu, si on y croit, ou un don de la nature. Mais certainement pas un bien privé ni une arme stratégique. L'eau, comme l'air, n'appartient à personne et est indispensable à tous. Nul ne peut se l'approprier pour quelque but que ce soit."

Niels HAUSGAARD

Entertainer, Denmark: "I sign for the right to Water"

Karina KELLNER

Secrétaire Générale, OBUSSAS – Observatoire des Usagers de l’Assainissement en Ile-de-France

Secrétaire Générale, OBUSSAS – Observatoire des Usagers de l’Assainissement en Ile-de-France: « Alors que l’ONU a reconnu le droit à l’eau et à l’assainissement comme un droit fondamental de l’Homme, il est plus qu’urgent qu’en France comme en Europe le droit à l’eau devienne une réalité pour toutes et tous. »

Felix DODDS

Executive Director of Stakeholderforum, UK. "I sign for the human right to water and sanitation!"

Glafkos HADJIPETROU

General Secretary

General Secretary PASYDY Trade Union (Cyprus): "I sign for the Human Right to Water"

Erhard BUSEK

Chairman of the Institute for the Danube region and Central Europe (IDM) in Vienna, Austria. "Water is life. The ecological situation for us will be more and more dependent on water. We have to do a lot to keep this condition of life available for everybody."

Monika KOSINSKA

General Secretary European Public Health Alliance (EPHA), Poland: "Water and sanitation services cannot be treated as an ordinary commodity when they are so essential to life itself. People cannot live without water, children do not grow up healthily. Access to drinking water is a very basic requirement, a fundamental human right. And yet in Europe, water and sanitation services are increasingly privatized, making their access more difficult for people who cannot pay for them"

João Manuel de Jesus Lobo

Mayor of Moita

Mayor of Moita (Portugal) and President of AIA (Associação Intermunicipal de Água da Região de Setúbal): “É uma honra e um dever associar-me a esta ação de autarcas, Presidentes de Câmara Europeus. Eu apoio e já assinei a ICE “A Água e o Saneamento É Um Direito Humano” apelo para que todos vós, meus concidadãos, façam o mesmo. A água é um direito, não é um negócio. É possível um mundo melhor e mais justo! É possível um mundo em que todos os seres humanos tenham acesso à água e ao saneamento. Vamos dar corpo a este sonho realizável!”

Hans VAN DIJK

Emeritus Professor at Delft University of Technology, Netherlands: "Quality public water services are an indispensable part of modern society. They require high skills and knowledge and a balanced consideration of the interests of consumers, governments, workers and the environment!"

Anne LE STRAT

adjointe au Maire de Paris et Présidente de "Eau de Paris"

Adjointe au Maire de Paris et Présidente de "Eau de Paris": "Au-delà de la catastrophe sanitaire, le manque d’eau contraint toute possibilité de développement économique, social et démocratique. L’inégalité dans l’accès à l’eau constitue l’une des plus grandes injustices, frappant les plus pauvres et les plus démunis socialement, et tout particulièrement les femmes. L’eau, essentielle à l’ensemble des écosystèmes, est notre bien commun, et doit être gérée dans l’intérêt général, dans le cadre d’un vrai service public. C’est pourquoi j’appelle à la mobilisation des citoyens européens, pour que le droit à l’eau, devienne enfin une réalité pour tous !"

Sascha GABIZON

Executive Director of Women in Europe for a Common Future (WECF), Netherlands: “We might want to make remark how important this human right to water and sanitation is especially for women, especially in developing countries and countries in transition, that it is often a question of life, death, illness and violence against women, and that we are VERY concerned that its some of the rich countries in the north, were sanitation is not a question of death, illness and violence, which are trying to turn back this new human right, which was agreed in 2010 by the UN general assembly”