Clean Water Should Be Recognized as a Human Right

PLoS Medicine

Working Papers from eSocialSciences

Abstract: Access to clean water should be declared a basic human right for three reasons. First, access to clean water can substantially reduce the global burden of disease caused by water-borne infections. Second, the privatization of water—as witnessed in Bolivia, Ghana, and other countries—has not effectively served the poor, who suffer the most from lack of access to clean water. Third, the prospect of global water scarcity—exacerbated by climate change, industrial pollution, and population growth—means that no country is immune to a water crisis.

Keywords: clean water; human right; burden of diseases; water-borne; privatization global water scarcity; industrial pollution; climate change; immune; population growth; UN; Africa; hygiene (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env
Note: Institutional Papers
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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