Water and sanitation are a human right - Europe

News Splash n°3 Water and sanitation are a human right!

www.right2water.eu goes live! With 1 April only a few days away, preparations are in full swing for the submission of the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) “water and sanitation are a human right”.  EPSU and Public Service union campaigners in all EU-27 countries are finalising preparations to start this campaign as soon as the “green light” is given by the European Commission. Our ECI is already receiving media attention in Belgium from VRT and in Germany from ZDF. Following earlier commitments by the ‘European Anti Poverty Network’ (EAPN) and ‘Women in Europe for a Common Future’ (WECF), this European Citizens’ Initiative can now also count on support from the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) and the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA), two large federations at European level. “Water and sanitation services cannot be treated as an ordinary commodity when they are so essential to life itself. People cannot live without water, children do not grow up healthily. Access to drinking water is a very basic requirement,  a fundamental human right. And yet in Europe, water and sanitation services are increasingly privatized, making their access more difficult for people who cannot pay for them.” stated Monika Kosinska, Secretary General of the European Public Health Alliance. According to the World Health Organization, 780 million people lack access to drinking water, including in Europe. Indeed,  the European Environmental Agency stated in 2012 that more than 50% of the rural population in ten EU countries have no access to improved water. This has a direct impact on their health status and creates an unfair level of avoidable health inequalities.   Today the campaign website will go “live”. Every website visitor will be able to register to be kept informed about the campaign. They will then receive the ‘News Splash’ on a regular basis and, once the European Commission gives the  “green light”, will receive a message informing that our petition is open for signature. This campaign is a tool to commit to the human right to water and sanitation. It is a tool to change the mind-set in the European Commission from a market-based approach with the focus on competition to a rights-based approach with the focus on public service. It aims to achieve universal (global) access to water and sanitation and to safeguard the limited public water resources for future generations.  advice right to water - www.right2water.eu