Safe and Clean Water as a Human Right - Article Example

They were former European colonies and were against the resolution but they did not vote against the resolution rather they also refrained from voting. Though the resolution had not brought any immediate changes it is viewed as a first step toward resolving this problem and creating awareness about the importance of clean water and proper sanitation for everyone. The moral issue in this article is that while many of the developing nations support clean and safe water as a human right because they lack clean and safe water, many of the developed nations are reluctant to accept their responsibility simply because they have clean and safe water and they do not want to assume the responsibility of providing safe and clean water to the entire world.

Bolivia strongly supported the resolution and its permanent representative to the UN, Pablo Solon, quoted various statistics to create awareness for safe and clean water. He stated that while global supplies of fresh water are shrinking day by day, “Approximately one out of every eight people does not have drinking water. In just one day, more than 200 million hours of the time used by women is spent collecting and transporting water for their homes”. Solon stated that the sanitation problem is even worse as a 2009 World Health Organization and UNICEF study declared that around 24000 children in developing countries were dying each day from preventable diseases caused by polluted water. On the other hand developed countries that refrained from voting received strong criticism. One of the officials from the United Kingdom relevantly quoted these countries as “don’t want to pay for the toilets in Africa”, therefore, despite having sufficient resources they are not ready to share the world’s responsibilities. While on the one hand, developing countries must have to support the resolution because they are the ones who are facing serious flaws in their systems of clean water and sanitation, developed countries are not behaving ethically in this regard. Developed countries never refrain from exploiting the resources of developing countries for their survival but when developing countries need support, developed countries simply turn away.

I think the best way to resolve this issue is to strengthen the role of the UN in the world. UN should stop acting as a dummy of developed countries but rather it should become an autonomous body that serves the entire world and is free from any biases. Again all of the developing countries must take a strong stance in this regard and the UN should try hard to compel developed countries to share the fruits of their development with the deprived ones. On environmental issues like these every country should assume its due responsibility to ensure the survival of Mother Earth. I think this is the best solution because serious issues like these cannot be solved without taking the developed countries on board. Read More