“20 litres of clean water a day a human right

This year’s Human Development Report calls for 20 litres of clean water a day for all as a human right.

It also concludes that the global water crisis is a silent emergency experienced mostly by the poor and tolerated by those with the resources, the technology and the political power to end it.


The water crisis in poor countries costs lives, deprives people their dignity and keeps children out of school. It is now high time to really start doing something about it, says Kevin Watkins, lead author of the 2006 Human Development Report:
– When it comes to water and sanitation, the world suffers from a surplus of conference activity and a deficit of credible action.

Watkins frustrations stems from two facts:

1) there is well-documented and enormous suffering around the world due to the lack of safe drinking water and sufficient sanitation;

2) why is not more done when report findings show that each $1 invested in water and sanitation would yield an economic return of about $8?

Half what rich countries spend on mineral water

Each year almost 2 million children die from diarrhoea that could be prevented with access to clean water and sufficient sanitation.

Moreover, 443 million school days are lost as a consequence of water-related illnesses and almost 50 percent of all people in developing countries are suffering from health problems caused by a lack of water and sanitation.

Altogether, this crisis in water and sanitation is holding back poverty reduction and economic growth in some of the world’s poorest countries.

– Like hunger, it is a silent emergency experienced by the poor and tolerated by those with the resources, the technology and the political power to end it, says the authors of the report.

This needs to change, stress the authors. So, what would it cost to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 on access to water and sanitation? About $10 billion a year, says the report.

It might seem a large sum, but it actually represents less than five days’ global military spending and less than half what rich countries spend each year on mineral water. The benefits for Sub-Saharan Africa would represent 60 percent of its 2003 aid flows.

Hence, the question is not whether the world can afford solve the global water crisis, but rather if the world can afford not to make the investments.

During the Swedish launch of the report in Stockholm recently, Sweden’s Ministry for the Environment, Andreas Carlgren, agreed:
– It will be enormously cost-effective to invest in the water sector and it reminds me of what we now see when it comes to the climate issue.

One thing that is, however, not put forward enough in the report is the increased need for water in agriculture in the future. Production of food for feeding the growing human population is highly water-consuming.

It takes more than 500 litres of water to produce enough flour for one loaf of bread and up to 7000 litres of water to produce 100 grams of beef in developed countries.

At the same time, urbanisation and increasing wealth are changing food preferences with significant increases in the demand for water-intensive commodities like meat and dairy products.

This involves large-scale groundwater overexploitation and widespread river depletion, which pose a major threat to biodiversity and aquatic ecosystems.

The resulting environmental degradation and loss of production potential caused by water pollution from agricultural chemicals, water logging and salinisation is of course of major importance for human development, especially in the world’s poor regions.

HDR 2006 recommendations:

1. Make water a human right:

Everyone should have at least 20 litres of clean water per day and the poor should get it for free.

2. Draw up national strategies for water and sanitation: Governments should aim to spend a minimum of one percent GDP on water and sanitation

3. Increased international aid:

to bring the MDG on water and sanitation into reach, aid flows will have to double.