The Right to Water as a Human Right - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages The question of this essay is “Should the right to clean water be considered a universal human right? I will discuss on the traditions that provide access to water, pollution of water, as well as the issue of privatization of water. This essay is divided into three sections. The first section addresses the issue of key definitions that relate to the human right to water. In this section, I will also look at the impacts that denial to the right to water can cause as well as the advantages that could arise if water was made an international human right. The second sessions will focus on why I think that making the right to accessibility of safe water a human right would reduce several challenges facing different societies as well as different regions of the world. The third and last section will make a conclusion on the issue of water right as a human right (Hu, 2006). Water is a very crucial necessity for both human as well as other living organisms. The right to water is an issue that has being under discussion for a long time. The primary argument is on whether making the right to access safe water a human right would resolve the extreme water scarcity experienced by people in some regions of the world especially in the Middle East and North Africa particularly the Sahara region. A human right is a law that demands for equal allocation of the resources that are considered crucial for human existence. Water right is thus a water law that insists on suitable distribution of water to ensure that all people irrespective of their social, economic, or political status access safe, adequate, and affordable water (Hodgson, 2006). I will discuss several water rights. The rights include the riparian water rights, use-based water rights, as well as water rights on basis of water bodies’ tenure. Riparian right is water rights based on property ownership. Use- based water rights allots the water rights on the bases of laws of torts that demand that access to water on hierarchical foundation thus all people do not have equal rights to water. The other water right is based on ownership of water bodies for example in Finland where water bodies are privately owned. However, in Finland flowing water bodies cannot be owned privately which is similar to the Roman Water Law. Inability to access sufficient and clean water in some regions of the world can lead to poor people being deprived of water, even drinking water (Hu, 2006; (Scanlon, Cassar, & Nemes, 2004) Traditional Views on the Right to Water Right through history, different societies strive to make the right to access safe water a human right. Traditionally, the right of water was closely related to land ownership. The roman water law conferred the right to water based on the advantage of owning land near water resources. However, the Roman law was against private possession of running water, an aspect that was present in the European legal traditions. In 533-34 AD, the Institute of Justinian publications posited that water alongside air and wildlife was among the things that could not be owned privately by and individual (Bruns, Ringler, & Meinzen-Dick, 2005). River and water were public properties and only the government had the right to prohibit any person or group of persons from accessing the resource. However, seasonal water sources were considered privately owned by those owning ...Download file to see next pagesRead More