Very important realities are absent from these discussions.  Franciscan International (FI) and WaterLex (WL) have prepared a booklet, The Right to Water and Sanitation, a Practical Guide to address these issues as well as to empower people to know their rights and take action. The starting point, so often overlooked in this discussion, is that today 885 million people lack clean water and consequently two million children die every year of water-borne diseases and insufficient hydration!

While in Europe and in the US, civil society is rightly fighting to maintain the public management of water as a common and public good, in poor countries people are dying for lack of adequate safe water.

Unsafe water is not a major concern in developed countries but it is a grave threat to life in poor countries. The lack of basic sanitation is even worse: worldwide 2.6 billion people have no access to adequate sanitation, and consequently their water supply is contaminated.

Recognizing that without safe water no human being can survive, the UN has urged governments to ensure that each person has at least 20 liters of clean water per day: “Safe drinking water and sanitation are human rights, essential for the full enjoyment of life and all other human rights.” (Declaration of the UN General Assembly - July 28^th 2010).

Concrete policies are needed to implement the right to water

The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (UN-CESCR) goes further, explaining: “The human right to water is indispensable for leading a life in human dignity. It is a prerequisite for the realization of other human rights. The Committee has been confronted continually with the widespread denial of the right to water in developing as well as developed countries. Over one billion persons lack access to a basic water supply, while several billion do not have access to adequate sanitation, which is the primary cause of water contamination and diseases linked to water. The continuing contamination, depletion and unequal distribution of water are exacerbating existing poverty. States parties have to adopt effective measures to realize, without discrimination, the right to water, as set out in this general comment.” (General Comment No. 15 on the Right to Water).

It is not enough to declare that water is a public good and a basic human right. The right to water has to be addressed through concrete policies for everyday life. The “Practical guide” by Franciscan International and WaterLex shows how sustainable solutions to ensure water and sanitation in poor rural and urban communities will reduce poverty and create hope for a better life.  The lack of safe water affects daily livelihoods and has a negative impact on household income.  The urban poor and slum dwellers around the world pay 5 to 10 times as much as others pay for water and this makes them even poorer; forced to use unsafe water, they are exposed to disease and prevented from earning a living. Additionally, the lack of safe water and basic sanitation makes children sick, prevents them from attending school, and keeps parents from going to work.

Therefore, creating access to water and sanitation is a first step toward establishing a normal life, including the right to education and health. In many areas of Africa, Asia and Latin America, better access to water would free women and girls to use the time now spent in obtaining water for education or productive activities. Finally, it is evident that access to water can improve family agriculture and increase food harvests, and thus household income.

Water as a limited resource

The first words of the 15 UN-CESCR commentaries are often overlooked: “Water is a limited natural resource and a public good fundamental for life and health”.  Water is to be cared for, not only because it is an essential resource for life and basic development, but also because it a limited good that should be preserved from contamination, pollution, and human greed for the benefit of all people today and for future generations.

Drawing on Franciscan spirituality, the “Practical guide” reminds us “the right to water is certainly important, but at the same time we need to respect the Water’s rights too!” Respect and love for water are based on the awareness that “in nature everything is connected and interrelated”, and water “seems to be the element that connects all creatures” since water “is in all forms of life”.  Thus, we have the right to call on governments to address the issue, but everyone has to do his/her part too: stopping the degradation, pollution and the waste of water is in fact to show respect for life. We need to screen our everyday actions in order to guarantee life today and tomorrow. The key word is share responsibility.

We are opposed to transforming water into a consumer product, not just because it is a precious and limited common good, but because we respect all expressions of life and every gift from God. Furthermore, if we call for guaranteed access to water and fight to protect water resources, it is because we want a more just and peaceful world where the division between rich and poor is overcome, beginning from the most vital and basic human right to water. As the “Practical Guide” reminds us, the meaning of life is “not creating richness but fraternity, by being one and compassionate with all creatures”, so that “the entire creation becomes family”.

The purpose of the “Practical Guide” is not only to raise awareness about the right to water and sanitation, but also to provide tools to address water-related challenges in everyday life. It wants to help all those who work at the grassroots among poor people to address the challenges of water issues and poverty and “contribute to making the right to water a reality for the most vulnerable”. In so doing, it challenges us not to take water for granted; in daily use, water has to be seen as a gift from God to be shared with all who lack it in the world.

Thus the “Practical guide” –as the presentation states- through its seven sections “adopts a bottom-up approach to highlight the steps that citizens and communities can take together with government to address water and sanitation challenges”.

In the first three sections, starting from an overview of the water and sanitation challenges faced by the poorest and most vulnerable groups, it explains the role and responsibilities of governments in addressing the challenges and identifies key issues and the way to set priorities. From section four on, it gives suggestions on how to manage available resources, and urges the community to follow-up on the authorities’ commitments and shows how the community can raise local concerns at both the national and international level.

This guide is not only an introduction to the issue of water and sanitation but it also raises challenges and questions that have to be answered by each believer through his/her everyday lifestyle, while praying “All Praise be Yours, my Lord, through Sister Water, so useful, lowly, precious and pure” (St. Francis of Assisi).

The Right to Water and Sanitation, a digital manual, by Franciscan International and WaterLex, can be downloaded at no cost from www.franciscansinternational.org/fileadmin/docs/Water_manual/FI_WL_The_Right_to_Water_and_Sanitation_-_a_practical_guide.pdf