By Gustavo Capdevila
GENEVA, Jul 31 2002 (IPS)

A United Nations report on the right to potable water recognises that this element is an economic good but suggests it would be dangerous to subject water to the laws of the market.

Governments, says the UN study, should adopt all measures possible to ensure that the least fortunate sectors of the population enjoy this right that is vital for all human beings.

The conclusions of the report are related to the debate that is under way within the multilateral trade system on the liberalisation of certain services, including the distribution of water.

In some African countries, large French transnational companies pay token amounts of money to governments for water distribution rights, but sell water at exorbitant prices, says the study, requested by the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.

El Hadji Guissé conducted the study as special rapporteur on water and member of the Sub-Commission, which serves as an advisory body to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and is made up of independent experts nominated by governments.

Guissé’s work focuses on the “relationship between the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights and the promotion of the realisation of the right to a drinking water supply and sanitation.”

The first observation the author makes refers to the vital role that water plays in human life.

The human body’s loss of water can have serious consequences if it reaches 10 percent of the organism’s total mass. A loss of greater than 20 percent causes death.

The water content of a healthy human adult varies from 58 to 67 percent of body mass, while for a newborn it is 66 to 74 percent.

As such, says Guissé, if more than a billion people worldwide suffer water shortages, “our species has reason to be alarmed.”

The report states that today 1.5 billion people lack access to drinking water and 4.0 billion people do not have adequate sanitation services. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 80 percent of diseases are transmitted through contaminated water.

Just a small part of the world’s population, and even fewer in developing countries, have access to water of an acceptable quality. In some countries, just 20 percent of the rural population has water of satisfactory quality.

“The drinking water shortage is the most serious threat that the human species has ever encountered,” writes Guissé in the study he presented to the Sub-Commission during its annual sessions, which got under way this week in Geneva.

The main causes of water scarcity include the destruction of river basins, deforestation, harmful agricultural practices based on the heavy use of pesticides and other chemicals, and the dumping of toxic wastes, states the report.

The special rapporteur observes that “advancing desertification is now a major concern for large populations in sub-Saharan Africa and is threatening animal and plant life in that part of the world.”

This situation is likely to continue, predicts the author, given the “state of underdevelopment in which these populations live.”

The only sources of fresh water are found at depths that would require specialised techniques that “only the industrialised nations can afford.”

In an assessment of the water shortages created by human activity, agro-industry appears as the largest consumer of this economic and social good. The report states that to produce one kg of grain requires at least 1,000 litres of water.

World hunger is related water, and with the global population expected to reach 8.5 billion by 2025, there will be increasing pressure to irrigate new farmland and improve soil yields.

Industry, “another source of improvement of our modern life”, uses nearly 20 percent of available water resources, says Guissé.

For example, to produce a ton of steel requires an average of 200 cubic metres of water, a ton of paper from 50 to 300 cubic metres, and a car almost 30,000 cubic metres of water.

In his legal analysis of the right to drinking water, Guissé mentions that in the opinion of the European Council on Environmental Law, “water is above all a social good, that is, a resource that forms part of the common heritage of humanity.”

In this sense, says the report, water should be subject to regulation and supervision by the public authorities.

According to the European Council, access to drinking water must not be subject to market forces dominated by the profit motive.

“Water is also an economic good of great value, which cannot be treated as a mere commodity like other consumer goods,” says the UN-commissioned study.

The populations of some African countries suffer the effects of the law of the market due to the privatisation of water supplies.

The major French transnational water companies have obtained agreements for the privatisation of water, and pay “insignificant royalties to the state and sell the water required for people’s basic needs at an exorbitant price,” says Guissé.

In Africa, water has become extremely expensive and the system of “management by exclusion” has led to severe and endemic poverty.

“Of course the treatment and distribution of water incur a cost which cannot be disregarded, but the supply of water should nevertheless be sold for a reasonable price which is bearable by every human being, regardless of his or her means,” states the UN document.

The liberalisation of water services, alongside transportation, telecommunications, tourism, health, education and other sectors is part of the negotiations taking place at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Numerous non-governmental organisations, particularly those specialising in humanitarian and human rights issues, are opposed to the market-oriented liberalisation of water, health and education, an initiative put forward by some industrialised countries.

Negotiations on trade in services have been unfolding at the WTO headquarters in Geneva since January 2000 and are to wrap up in late 2004.

Beginning in March 2003, discussions will enter a decisive phase of exchange of trade commitments among the WTO’s 144 member states.

Excerpt: