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Open Access

Issue Image

PLoS Medicine Issue Image | Vol. 6(6) June 2009

<b>Clean water should be recognized as a human right.</b>

At the March 2009 United Nations meetings coinciding with the World Water Forum, a declaration that would recognize water as a basic human right was defeated. In this month's Editorial, the PLoS Medicine Editors argue that access to clean water should be declared a basic human right for three reasons. First, access to clean water can substantially reduce the global burden of disease caused by water-borne infections. Second, the privatization of water—as witnessed in Bolivia, Ghana, and other countries—has not effectively served the poor, who suffer the most from lack of access to clean water. Third, the prospect of global water scarcity—exacerbated by climate change, industrial pollution, and population growth—means that no country is immune to a water crisis.

Image Credit: Rudhach at flickr.com

Clean water should be recognized as a human right. Top

At the March 2009 United Nations meetings coinciding with the World Water Forum, a declaration that would recognize water as a basic human right was defeated. In this month's Editorial, the PLoS Medicine Editors argue that access to clean water should be declared a basic human right for three reasons. First, access to clean water can substantially reduce the global burden of disease caused by water-borne infections. Second, the privatization of water—as witnessed in Bolivia, Ghana, and other countries—has not effectively served the poor, who suffer the most from lack of access to clean water. Third, the prospect of global water scarcity—exacerbated by climate change, industrial pollution, and population growth—means that no country is immune to a water crisis.

Image Credit: Rudhach at flickr.com

Citation: (2009) PLoS Medicine Issue Image | Vol. 6(6) June 2009. PLoS Med 6(6): ev06.i06. doi:10.1371/image.pmed.v06.i06

Published: June 30, 2009

Copyright: © 2009 Donald Macleod. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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Clean water should be recognized as a human right.

At the March 2009 United Nations meetings coinciding with the World Water Forum, a declaration that would recognize water as a basic human right was defeated. In this month's Editorial, the PLoS Medicine Editors argue that access to clean water should be declared a basic human right for three reasons. First, access to clean water can substantially reduce the global burden of disease caused by water-borne infections. Second, the privatization of water—as witnessed in Bolivia, Ghana, and other countries—has not effectively served the poor, who suffer the most from lack of access to clean water. Third, the prospect of global water scarcity—exacerbated by climate change, industrial pollution, and population growth—means that no country is immune to a water crisis.

Image Credit: Rudhach at flickr.com

doi:10.1371/image.pmed.v06.i06.g001
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