A resolution declaring the human right to “safe and clean drinking water and sanitation” has been passed from the United Nations General Assembly held on 28 July 2010. It has secured the vote from 122 countries, where as 41 countries participating at the Assembly abstained from voting.

Maude Barlow, chairwoman of Food and Water Watch — a Washington-based group — who previously sat as a senior advisor to the United Nations General Assembly on the water issue, has addressed this decision as a groundbreaking achievement in water sector.
The resolution has been drafted by the Bolivian government in June, which indicates that global rights would “Entitle everyone to available, safe, acceptable, accessible and affordable water and sanitation.”
The resolution has declared that countries unable to provide water to their residents should be assisted through “international co-operation and assistance,” essentially calling for rich countries to give foreign aid to any government that doesn’t have the means to meet its citizens’ water rights. It has also welcomed the UN Human Rights Council’s request that Catarina de Albuquerque, the UN Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation, report annually to the General Assembly as well.
The text of the resolution also expresses deep concern that an estimated 884 million people lack access to safe drinking water and a total of more than 2.6 billion people do not have access to basic sanitation. It also indicates that 1.5 million children under the age of five die each year and 443 million school days are lost because of water- and sanitation-related diseases.

Source:http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=4308, http://www.canadians.org/