The universal human right toaccess to safe and potablewater as well as to sanitation was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly on exactly 28.7.10, exactly ten years ago. (1,2)
The World Water Report published by UNESCO on 3/22/20 indicates the inability to wash for 56 percent of humans. (3) UN then refers to:
– 1 in 3 people without drinking water,
– 3 out of 5 lacking toilets,
– women engaged in water transportation in 8 out of 10 cases,
– 1,200 children killed daily by dysentery resulting from poor hygiene. (6)
Thoughts fly to Africa and the Middle East, to the responsibilities of obtuse governments and rapacious corporations, to desertification. But abuse and deprivation also take place in the Italy and Spain of the corporals, without going too far.
UN, ten years of failure
The United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 64/292 by a majority vote on 7/28/10. Through which it affirms ‘the human right to clean and safe drinking water and sanitation, essential for the full enjoyment of life and human rights.’
The 193 member states then pledged to step up efforts to provide safe, clean and accessible drinking water and sanitation services for all. They renewed these commitments at the UN General Assembly on 9/25/15 with the adoption of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Which should be realized, in words, by 2030.
‘Goal 6, ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all ‘
(Sustainable Development Goals, UN 2030 Agenda)
Dry numbers
Special Rapporteur to the UN on the right to safe drinking water and sanitation Léo Heller (Brazil)-from the benches of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights-recalls the numbers already mentioned. Adding that 1 in 11 people still are forced into open-air droppings. (4)
Dry numbers, desk estimates, systematically at fault. Like those on hunger, which the biased officials of UN agencies downplay. To hide the failure of an entire system based on recommendations and non-binding commitments for member states.
Covid without water
‘This year., the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical importance of availability, accessibility and affordability of water and sanitation and hygiene in global health efforts: COVID-19 will not be stopped without access to safe water for people living in vulnerable situations.
Despite the general awareness of this, too many urban poor living in informal settlements continue to lack access to safe water, and the measures taken for emergency water supply during the pandemic have been grossly inadequate‘.
‘The pandemic of coronavirus has taught us that leaving behind the people who most need water and sanitation services can lead to humanitarian tragedy. In the next 10 years, human rights to water and sanitation must be a priority if we are to build just and humane societies‘. (Léo Heller. 5)
Water and abuse
Water is the object of political robbery and abuse(water grabbing), as seen (see note 1). Its shortage has various causes and is exacerbated by both the climate emergency and increasing water pressure. The rush to urbanization and mindless industrial practices.
Agricultural, industrial and mining activities continue to poison the environment and contaminate water with pesticides and other poisons. While Big Food – Nestlé and Coca-Cola foremost among them – drains even the most miserable watersheds to resell the beverages. And that is why it has always, as it still does today, promoted the privatization of this vital resource everywhere.
Discrimination and social injustice
The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to Water and Sanitation, in turn, highlights how their deprivation also stems from factors ‘often related to discrimination against those who do not have a voice in public decision-making.’
‘In developed countries, undocumented migrants are often excluded from public services, including water and sanitation, due to their irregular status, and live in inhumane conditions unimaginable to citizens of those countries. In many places around the world, water and sanitation human rights defenders are persecuted, arrested and even tortured and executed for their work, especially when it goes to affect large economic interests’.
Without water remains a large proportion of those living in marginal conditions. Families unable to pay bills, homeless, migrants and minorities. Especially in the informal settlements, the slums and ghettos where workers and laborers recruited by the corporals stay.
Corporalism and human dignity
Italy under Covid, faced with the real risk of crippling agriculture, introduced partial and temporary regularization of migrants. But dirty supply chains continue undisturbed, union guarantees and dignified housing conditions for migrants are a mirage. Like sanitation and drinking water, as in Africa so close.
Legality and respect for workers in agriculture are in fact guaranteed, to date, by the only – and few – supply chains that rigorously apply good practices suitable for avoiding exploitation. While arrests, however celebrated, remain an exception (7.8).
The dignity of human existence and its fundamental rights also depend on us. As we wait to see concrete signs of implementation of the ‘Let’s help them in their homes‘ policy, it is our duty as consumAtors to choose only fruits and vegetables and first food processing products that come from guaranteed supply chains without caporalism.
Dario Dongo and Sabrina Bergamini
Notes
(1) Dario Dongo and Ylenia Desireé Patti Giammello. Universal right to water, a mirage in its twilight years. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 8.4.19, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/idee/diritto-universale-all-acqua-un-miraggio-agli-sgoccioli
(2) Sabrina Bergamini, Dario Dongo. The missing water. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 1.7.19, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/sicurezza/l-acqua-che-manca
(3) Dario Dongo. Covid-19, World Water Report. Precautions impossible for 55% of humanity. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 4/17/20, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/sicurezza/covid-19-world-water-report-precauzioni-impossibili-al-55-dell-umanità
(4) 10th anniversary of the recognition of water and sanitation as a human right by the General Assembly. Statement by the Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, Léo Heller. July 28, 2020 https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26116&LangID=E
(5) OHCHR. UN expert: Speed up efforts to achieve human rights to water and sanitation. 27.7.20,
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26126&LangID=E
(6) Goal 6: Ensure access to water and sanitation for all https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/water-and-sanitation/
(7) Editor, Corporalism: entrepreneur arrested. ANSA. 1.7.20, https://www.ansa.it/sito/notizie/topnews/2020/07/01/caporalato-arrestato-imprenditore_b5070453-157c-49e3-9300-495848b05b84.html
(8) Dario Dongo. Female slavery in the fields in Ragusa. After The Guardian’s investigation, the first convictions. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 1.1..20, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/idee/schiavitù-femminile-nei-campi-a-ragusa-dopo-l-inchiesta-di-the-guardian-le-prime-condanne
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
Journalist. Consumption, rights, nutrition, social, environment. Head of Consumers Help. She collaborated with ResetDOC, Il Riformista, La Nuova Ecologia, IMGPress.
