The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that a lack of water and sanitation leads to humanitarian tragedies

Ten years ago, the United Nations General Assembly explicitly recognized water and sanitation as a human right and acknowledged that water and sanitation are essential to the realisation of all human rights, yet billions of people still lack access to these basic services for their well-being and health, the Special Rapporteur on those fundamental guarantees lamented on Monday.

In a statement, Léo Heller said the pandemic "has taught us that leaving behind the people who need water and sanitation services most can lead to a humanitarian tragedy. He added that in the next decade it must be a priority to ensure that all people have these services in order to "build just and humane societies. 

Heller recalled that on 28 July 2010 the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution in which all UN member states committed themselves to ensuring access to water and sanitation for all people. That commitment was reinforced in Agenda 2030, whose Sustainable Development Goals seek to end poverty, protect the planet and improve the lives and future prospects of all people. The expert recognized that the resolution was a good starting point and has inspired important initiatives and progress, albeit at a slow pace.

The Special Rapporteur said that countries do not appear to be ready to achieve the water, sanitation and hygiene goals by 2030. One in three people still lack access to safe drinking water and more than half of the World population (4.2 billion people) lack access to safe sanitation, while three billion people lack basic handwashing facilities with soap and water, and more than 673 million people still practice open defecation. This unacceptable situation causes 432,000 diarrhoeal deaths every year. 

"The commitments of Agenda 2030 are an incentive for no one to be left behind, but this will not be enough if countries approach the goals and targets in a purely quantitative manner, leaving aside the human rights to water and sanitation," concluded the rapporteur, calling for accelerated efforts to achieve these rights for all.

Special Rapporteurs are part of the so-called Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. The Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN human rights system, is the general name for the Council's independent investigative and monitoring mechanisms dealing with specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organisation and serve in their individual capacity.