Is Water a Human Right? Hundreds of millions of people around
the world lack regular access to clean water and sewerage. In
many parts of the globe, obtaining water for everyday use
requires an enormous diversion of time and effort. And beyond
thirst and reduced productivity, the lack of clean water has
very serious health consequences: Dirty water can transmit
parasites, bacteria, and viruses and can inhibit sanitation,
resulting in millions of cases of water-borne diseases each
year, many deadly. The “global crisis in water,” as a 2006
United Nations report put it, “claims more lives through disease
than any war claims through guns.” In short, the unavailability
of clean water easily ranks among the most serious problems
facing humanity. Over the past decade, clean-water scarcity has
been the subject of hundreds of academic studies, improving our
understanding of its causes and its scope and identifying many
possible solutions. At the same time, however, the problem has
also been the focus of a burgeoning a