Thanks to Evo Morales, clean water and sanitation are now a human right

UN declares access to clean water a human right
(AFP) – 2 hours ago

UNITED NATIONS — The UN General Assembly on Wednesday recognized access to clean water and sanitation as a human right.

After more than 15 years of debate on the issue, 122 countries voted in favor of a compromise Bolivian resolution enshrining the right, while 41 abstained.

The text "declares the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of the right to life."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gFw3sC1VZUGBBXghGSeA-vRwYQoA

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Guess which was among the 41 nations that abstained? Yep, the United States.

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The resolution will now be inserted into the U.N.'s Universal Human Rights Declaration.

Nice victory for Bolivia at the U.N.

nothing too wrong with it I guess but an empty gesture to those who are living without clean water. we'll see if Bolivia takes the lead

thanks for pointing out a problem already with this new right.

and I never realized I didn't have the right to drink from the fountain until the UN granted me that right.

I believe most citizens in Utah have access to clean potable water. I think Utah is already in compliance. I wonder about Bolivia though. on a side note I believe water right laws come from past farming in the west. a certain quantity of water must be maintained downstream of users. You wouldn't want a major farm or corporation using all the water in a river or stream and leaving those downstream high and dry would you???

again, the resolution does not take into account the availibility of water versus the demand in drier areas. so have fun with that.

how to provide access to clean potable water is going to be the issue in the developing world, not in Utah. its not going to be up to the UN to enforce this right in Bolivia or Mozambique.

our water with toxic pesticides and sediment, with impunity. WE have to pay to clean the water!

Evo Morales and the huge grass roots movement behind him fought Bechtel Corp for privatizing the water in Cochabama, Bolivia, and then jacking up the price of water to the poorest of the poor--up to a third of their pittance incomes--and even trying to charge poor peasants for collecting rainwater! They threw Bechtel out of their country and elected Morales as president. Give me that kind of leadership! Give me that kind of citizen action in defense of a human right! And, by God, extend it to the whole world! We have lost that spirit here--the spirit of democracy--and we need to get it back.

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"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

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Where, in that document, is the right of multinational corporations to pollute water, to commandeer water, to OWN the water and to profiteer from water--the most basic of human needs, the most essential condition for human life?

We need to remember these words. We need to repeat these words. And we need to ask, as generations before us have asked, how to implement them. That is what Bolivians are doing. Why aren't WE--the self-proclaimed keepers of democracy?

You sneer at Bolivia, but they have fought for the PRINCIPLE of LIFE, as stated in our revolutionary declaration. Those principles are vital--to our welfare and everyone else's. They need to be stated, re-stated and implemented. They need to stated, re-stated and implemented again and again, because there are always forces--"organized money," as FDR called it--who wish to diminish and deny life for profit.

That is why Evo Morales led this fight at the UN--and why it is so appalling that the USA "abstained." Bechtel disapproves. Monsanto disapproves. The multinational corporations and the super-rich who are running things here oppose the right of poor peasants in Bolivia, and the right of all of us, to the most basic component of life--water. And so our own government sneers at it, like you sneer at Bolivia. How disgusting is that?

:puke:

Wish I could recommend it.

The same thing's happening in Appalachia, where Big Coal is blasting away mountain tops and polluting the streams and water supply for thousands of people.

The list of atrocities here and abroad is appalling, at least to those of us who understand the ramifications of the damage being done by these greedy, amoral corporate bastards.

http://ilovemountains.org/resources/

http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/mtr/

And if you can stomach it, the propaganda being spewed by Big Coal:

http://www.nma.org/pdf/fact_sheets/mtm.pdf



:puke: :puke: :grr: :nuke:

it seems its the Bolivian government's duty now to come into compliance with that right. I wonder how many people in Bolivia are having their rights violated right now.

could use them and travelers being charged for water crossing the desert.

and not fondly, I might add.

~snip~
Barlow, a former senior adviser to the UN General Assembly on the water issue, said some wealthy countries abstained out of fear "that they are going to be asked to pay the price tag" or that the resolution would give "tools to their own people to use against them."

She welcomed the fact that major countries such as China, Russia, Germany, France, Spain and Brazil backed the resolution.

Of her country's abstention, she said: "We are terribly disappointed."

She said Canada's conservative government wants the right to sell water.

"They know that if they say it is a human right it will be a contradiction to want to turn it into a commodity," she added.

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Rightists are all driven to try to own the world's water, and if they could, they'd make us pay to breath, as well. They are going to get their comeuppance one day, when they least expect it, and they won't be able to get the soldiers to protect them from the consequences of their lives of crime.

Good for Bolivia.

It's moments like these when we get to see who the civilized people are and which countries are controlled by vultures.

People sell their souls to get it. Without them they are worthless, but they might be "powerful."

And look at the dirty things they do to keep it.

That's their burden. Democracy Now http://www.democracynow.org/ this morning had Johan Galton on, brilliant peace activist from Norway. Talked about how we are a good country with the albatross of empire on our back, once we shake it off and rejoin the human community we'll be happily accepted back.

year sure.

by the Colombian military, here...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x39172

So we really ought to heed your sneers at Bolivia. Not.

:puke:

and all the posts, but for the life of me, I can't figure out where you got that talking point. I must have missed the part where it's all America's fault.

:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick:

http://www.globalissues.org/article/601/water-and-development

http://www.unesco.org/courier/2000_12/uk/planet2.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochabamba_protests_of_2000

K&R!