Committee: United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)
Topic B: Sanitary Drinking Water in Developing Countries

Photograph by Kibae Park / Source: United Nations Photo
A child washes himself in Kallyanpur, a slum in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka. As of 2006 figures, 1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water, while 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation.  

Many problems arise from not having enough clean drinking water. When water isn’t readily available in rural areas, farmers are not able to water their crops, which means they cannot produce crops for profit nor for their families to eat, thus continuing the cycle of poverty. In developing countries the women do all the domestic chores, which includes collecting water. This task becomes difficult to perform when the body is weak from not consuming enough water, and the water is miles away in sometimes war stricken areas. “Simply put - the lack of safe drinking water is the primary cause of disease in the world today. Everyday, tens of thousands of people die from causes directly related to contaminated water. And for those who survive, without good health, there is little chance for a normal and productive life. A surprising statistic to many is that contaminated water causes 80% of the health problems throughout the world.” (“Why Water”) The lack of education is a product of a region’s poor access to water.  Sick children do not have the energy to learn and men lack the drive to work hard. Water affects everything and without it the people and the region cannot grow.

        Many factors contribute to the diminishing sources of potable water in developing countries such as pollution in addition to famine, drought and other natural disasters. More than one in six people worldwide do not have access to enough safe freshwater. “In developing countries, 70 percent of industrial wastes are dumped untreated into waters where they pollute the usable water supply.” (UN Statistics) “The UN suggests that each person needs about 20-50 liters of freshwater a day to ensure their basic needs for drinking, cooking, and cleaning. The total volume of water on Earth is about 1.4 billion Km3. The volume of freshwater resources is around 35 million km3 or about 2.5 percent of the total volume. Of these freshwater resources about 70 percent is in the form of ice and permanent snow cover in mountainous regions, the Antarctic and Arctic regions.”(UN Statistics) “Around 30 percent of the world’s freshwater is stored underground in the form of groundwater (shallow and deep groundwater basins up to 2,000 meters, soil moisture, swamp water and permafrost). This constitutes about 97 percent of all of the freshwater that is potentially available for human use.”(UNEP)  Freshwater is so easily attainable it can be reached typically 100 meters below the surface, but without the right tools people will have a lack of ability to get to freshwater. Many diseases stem from the consumption of contaminated drinking water. Children are certainly affected; children in developing countries can carry up to 1,000 parasitic worms in their bodies at a time. Diarrhea remains the second leading cause of death among children under the age of five. “Every 20 seconds a child dies from a water-related disease” (Global Water). If something is not done about the issue of the availability of clean drinking water, then people will continue to die from curable diseases. 

        Global Water is an organization whose mission is to provide water to developing countries. “Global Water’s concept of providing new and clean water supplies to withstand drought and alleviate the necessity to use polluted surface waters is a decidedly different focus from the normal relief effort today” (“Who are we”) This organization wants to be proactive; instead of helping after the famine, they want to prevent it from happening with providing tools like water well drills and groundwater pumps. Global Water works with local water NGOs in the rural areas to determine what methods would be suitable to provide the optimal amount of water to the region and the best way of executing the policy. It isn’t enough to just provide water. Global Water also provides sanitation and hygiene systems using local materials. Although these rural areas do not have state of the art technology Global Water provides disinfection and distribution techniques that create a simple and safe water supply system for thousands of villagers.  Successful Global Water projects utilize water and sanitation as a tool to create sustainable socioeconomic development in these poor rural communities.

        There are many organization which help provide water to developing countries such as Water for the Ages, Charity Water and the World Water Organization. “The World Water Organization is a not-for-profit international membership organization of professionals from governments, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, scholastic institutions and multi- and global corporations. WWO works with United Nations and World Bank professionals serving on the Executive ad Advisory boards. World Water Organization projects are to improve daily access to water, reduce the burden of water collection on communities and individuals, improve the quality of water being consumed in these communities and address other water related challenges. The UN-Water Programme continues to bring awareness to this crisis through campaigns like “Year of Sanitation 2008” and “Water for Life” begun  in 2005.            

        Water scarcity is prevalent in all parts of the world, but it is more commonplace in Africa; more than 300 million Africans lack access to safe water. “Out of 55 countries in the world with domestic water use below 50 liters per person per day (the minimum requirement set by the World Health Organization), 35 are in Africa. Almost half of all Africans suffer from one of six main water-related diseases.”(Mitume) One of the major reasons why this problem is occurring is because the bodies of water in Africa are diminishing. The size of Lake Chad has decreased significantly. During the 1960’s the lake was 25,000 square kilometers; now it has fallen to 3,000 square kilometers; this loss affects more than 20 million people. Africa is abundant in resources; it has 17 large rivers and more than 160 major lakes; presently Africa only uses about 4 percent of it’s total annual renewable water. The Nigerian Water Minister Mukhtari Shehu Shagari comments that, “The challenge is getting water to where it is needed most, affordably and efficiently. Currently, about 50 percent of urban water is wasted, as is 75 percent of irrigation water.” (Mitune) The United Nations has been trying to develop a plan to bring water to Mali, a country in the heart of northwestern Africa. Mali, like other countries has been suffering from a shortage of water. The United Nations has decided to provide water to every major city in Mali where the population is over 10,000 inhabitants. This is very difficult because of insufficient housing and increased pollution which is affecting the quality and quantity of available water. 80 percent of all Malian illness stems from polluted water or scarcity. Many African countries do not have the money to provide technology to solve the sanitation and distribution problem of water. In the last twenty years African economic growth rates were low which resulted in financial constraints and rivalry for an ever-declining public resource. African countries suffered because of their economic decline, along with decrease in donor support. With little or no government support Africans are left to solve their own problems when it comes to housing and water scarcity.  The African governments are making efforts to solve the water crisis but they are not able to do a great deal due to the lack of funding and a low gross domestic product.

        Asia is also suffering from water shortages. If this problem is not addressed soon, it will cause food shortages and higher prices in the near future. Due to global warming scientist have projected that the snow on the Himalayas will be completely gone by 2035; this is extremely problematic because according to recent report by the US Senate Foreign Relations’ office, this mountain provides precious water to this region. Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma, India, China and Thailand depend on the same major bodies of water to supply their countries; these sources are being slowly depleted by climate change, waste, pollution and population growth. The lack of groundwater has started to affect crop production in some countries, for example; in northern China and parts of India due to farmers’ new methods of irrigation. Farmers are now using diesel and electric pumps to obtain groundwater; by doing this farmers quickly use up the groundwater supply. China and other Asian countries plan to make provisions in order to support the demand of water. The southern parts of the Philippines have replaced corn with rice as the traditional staple in order to preserve water. Philip Bowring consulting editor and former editor of Far Eastern Review is currently a writer for the website Asian Sentinel. He observers that the Chinese have already implemented schemes to divert water from its eastward flowing rivers to parched northern China. These plans do not impact other countries-though they may just simply put off the day of reckoning for ground water over use. Other plans have been implemented to help in the shortage of water; some areas are addressing the problem by building dams.  Phillip Bowring suggests that countries invest in modern agriculture in underdeveloped regions such as Korea’s Daewoo. Bowring offers up other suggestions in his article: “Another might be to discourage the shift to meat-eating, or use of cereal crops which are less water-intensive.“ (“Asian Sentinel”) Actions are being taken to deal with the problem of water shortages throughout the region, but if no one addresses the problem soon, then this region will soon suffer a great loss.

        Water is a crucial staple in life, nothing can survive without it. It is common knowledge that developing countries are the victims of water sanitation and shortage dilemmas. The UN and other organizations are dedicated to provide water to these regions. With safe freshwater, communities will be able to strive and function. A lot of progress has been made, but there is still more to be done. The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon remarks at a General Assembly meeting that everyone should have access to water and sanitation services. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon believes that drastic measures have to be made to ensure that everyone has clean drinking water daily.  Ki-moon states that “Gender considerations must remain central.  As primary care-givers, women spend many hours simply trying to secure water.  Access to clean water and sanitation will free up time and enable mothers to provide their children with a healthy start in life.  Experience also shows that girls are more likely to attend school when there are proper sanitation facilities.” (UN General Assembly) By doing this the UN plans to end the cycle of poverty. In 2010 many governments created “Sanitation and Water for all” initiative to more successfully deliver water to those in need. The UN continues to make resolutions, raise funds, and launch campaigns, in order to bring awareness to this serious issue.

1. In what ways are organizations helping bring relief to different regions?
2. What are some ways that countries in need of water can gain access to it? What tools and resources can they use to be able to provide for these in-need regions more efficiently?
3. What do you think should be done about water scarcity that may not already be done?
4. In your own opinion, is enough being done to distribute water in developing countries?
5. What are some of the diseases and illnesses that many people suffer from because they lack proper sanitation facilities and clean water?
6. How does a lack of clean water impact the lives of women?

Global Water. http://www.globalwater.org/.

Global Water. “Why water.” http://globalwater.org/whywater.htm.

Global Water. “Who are we." http://globalwater.org/whoweare.htm.

Mutume, Gumisai. “Rough road to sustainable development”. African Renewal.                                        http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/voll8no2/182environ.htm.                                  

Peete, Connie. “Importance of water” Livestrong  24 July 2010                                       http://www.livestrong.com/article/183109-the-importance-of-water-to-our-survival/.

UN General Assembly: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “Water Crisis”.  22 September 2010 http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2010/sgsm13126.doc.htm.

UN: Human Rights Council. Resolutions A /64/694. 5 March 2010.                                                       

UN: Human Rights Council. Resolutions A/64/169. 24 July 2009.                                                                                                                                                              

UN: UN Statistics on Water “Water Resources, Use, Drinking and Water Sanitation, Water Agriculture and Food Security, and Water Pollution, Degradation and Disasters  22 September 2010                 http://www.unwater.org/statistics.html.