Gorbachev Calls for Global
Treaty Making Access to Water and Basic Sanitation a Human Right
April 18, 2005
Mikhail Gorbachev urges world leaders to adopt a treaty that would guarantee
people clean water and sanitation, the Associated Press reported. Gorbachev said
that decreasing water supplies and political resistance have limited efforts to
bring fresh water to people living in poverty around the world. According to the
report, Gorbachev will call for a first-ever international water treaty during
an April 21 keynote address to the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development.
The former Soviet leader calls for an agreement that makes access to water and
basic sanitation a human right and holds nations responsible for providing it;
an agreement that would also govern how freshwater resources are managed and
shared. On March 22 he launched a petition campaign that aims to pressure
governments to begin negotiations to produce the covenant. Gorbachev, founded
Green Cross International in 1993 to encourage business, government and
non-governmental organizations to collaborate and find solutions to
environmental problems. In recent years, he has urged governments to give people
access to clean water and sanitation; his group has worked in parts of Africa,
South America, Jordan, Russia and Eastern Europe. He argues wealthy countries to
devote more funding to solving the problem. "It's scandalous that a lot of
this money is not found and put into saving the kids who die every day from
unsafe water," he told the Associated Press. About 2.5 billion people
worldwide lack water sanitation services, and 5 million die from waterborne
diseases each year, according to Global Green USA, the American arm of Green
Cross. Nearly 1.2 billion people do not have clean water to drink.
Source: Associated Press April 18, 2005