Safe and clean drinking water is a human right

EDTOR: On July 28,2010,the United Nations General Assembly adopted an historical resolution recognizing “the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights” (A/RES/64/292).

Today (February 15), I witnessed the most brutal form of disconnection of a human RIGHT to one of my neighbours as the water mains was locked off, severing a family of six, with three children attending school without a clean source…for a mere $400 +/-. The house owner who prefers to remain anonymous said that they were paying a ‘little something’ all the time, so I’m sure that the immaculate records at the CWSA would show that that consumer was in the habit of paying, even though the full arrears were never cleared.

I refer to the Dutch island Curacao, where potable water, like in the Grenadines, is a valuable resource. On that island, long before the UN General Assembly recognized water as a basic human right, whenever a consumer’s account went into arrears, as there are under-privileged persons all over the world, the penalty was the placement of a valve that allows water to come to those premises at a little faster than a drip, but without pressure. An inconvenience, but you are never out of water. In Curacao, this has been happening long before the year 2000 … we are now in 2023.

So when that device is on the main line entering that house, a toilet after flushing would take about three hours or more to refill, instead of just three minutes if there is pressure on the line. With that valve on your line you will have to catch the water in a bucket and bathe from the bucket, no showers!

A little inconvenience, but you would never be out of water to cook and clean. That is the humane way to approach such situations. Not a total cut off ! No human should be deprived of life … water !

It is the duty of the government to uphold and enforce the decisions of the UN general Assembly, by ensuring that our human rights are not being violated. We have a UN office here. What is the role of that office here ?

Isn’t that office also about registering the complaints of human rights violations in this country. Now that they are aware that our right to drinking water is literally being severed, what says our local UN office?

SMALL AXE