Water as a Human Right

Water is a fundamental part of life, including one of our health status. It is a basic human right. Water is also beneficial for maintaining hygiene and sanitation. However, the availability of clean water is rare now. This can lead to water scarcity. The water scarcity is a global issue and a health crisis. Based on Water.org, nearly one million people die each year from water, sanitation and hygiene-related diseases which actually could be reduced with access to safe water and sanitation.

According to UN-Water, water scarcity means scarcity in availability due to physical shortage, scarcity in access due to the failure of institutions and a lack of adequate infrastructure, scarcity in quality of water. Scarcity in quality of water can cause infectious diseases that can spread through contaminated water. Some of these water-borne diseases– a problem for 2.4 billion people –are typhoid, cholera, paratyphoid fever, dysentery, jaundice, amoebiasis and malaria. The poor, who are among the most vulnerable, are also likely to be affected the most.

On earth that is filled with two third of its parts with water, there is 3% of the water is freshwater, but only less than one percent of the earth’s freshwater is actually accessible to us. As a result, today, 785 million people – 1 in 9 – lack of access to safe water and 2 billion people – 1 in 3 – lack of access to a toilet. For Indonesia, nearly 25 million people do not use toilets. They defecate in fields, bushes, forests, ditches, roads, rivers or other open spaces, causing poor sanitation and hygiene, especially those who belong to low income families. According to UNICEF Indonesia, the poorest Indonesians are still lagging behind with significant gaps in accessing sanitation, especially in households at the two lowest levels of society – by 40 and 65 percent in urban areas and 36 and 65 percent in rural areas.

Access to clean water is the right of every individual, a basic human right, but not everyone is lucky enough to get clean water easily and affordably. What we can do to keep water clean is not to throw garbage or contaminated materials into rivers or the sea, use enough water, and participate in raising awareness about clean water in your community. Let’s save our water!