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Water Rights and Water Values. We know the value of water when the well runs dry Benjamin Franklin. Water Rights and Water Values. >1.2 billion people do not have adequate drinking water >2.5 billion people do not have sanitation
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Water Rights and Water Values We know the value of water when the well runs dry Benjamin Franklin
Water Rights and Water Values • >1.2 billion people do not have adequate drinking water • >2.5 billion people do not have sanitation • Each day, nearly 10,000 children under the age of 5 die in Third World countries because of illnesses contracted by use of impure water and water-borne diseases like diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, guinea worm and hepatitis • 2.2 million people die each year from diseases associated with unsafe drinking water • Lack of clean water and sanitation principle source of diseases (dysentery, cholera, typhoid, etc.) ~ 76 million deaths b/w 2002 and 2020
Water Rights and Water Values (withdrawal as % of availability) http://www.unep.org/vitalwater/21.htm#21b
Water Rights and Water Values “Does the United States have enough water? We do not know.” Science and Technology to Support Fresh Water Availability in the United States, Subcommittee on Water Availability & Quality, National Science & Technical Council Committee on Environment & Natural Resources (2004) http://www.ostp.gov/NSTC/html/swaqreport_2-1-05.pdf Thirty-Six states reported that they expect to suffer considerable water shortages over the next 10 years. US GAO, Report No. GAO-03-514, Report to Congressional Requesters, Freshwater Supply: States’ Views of How Federal Agencies Could Help Them Meet the Challenges of Expected Shortages (2003) 1.95 million Americans in 670,000 households lack basic access to fresh water and sanitation. Rural Community Assistance Partnership, Still Living Without the Basics in the 21st Century (2005) http://www.rcap.org/slwob.html
Water Rights and Water Values We know the value of water when the well runs dry Benjamin Franklin
Water Rights and Water Values • What is the value of water? • price that is set by the market or a regulatory agency? • amount you are willing to pay at your faucet? • $1.50 average U.S. residents pay to have 1,000 gallons transported to their homes? • 2000 low = SLC @ $0.70/ 1000 gal • 2000 high = PIT @ $4.00/ 1000 gal • $1.25 that many of us put into soda machines for a 20 oz. bottle?
Water Rights and Water Values 1 cubic meter = 264.17 gal. http://www.nusconsulting.com/p_surveys_detail.asp?PRID=58
Water Rights and Water Values • Do you have a right to water? • Is it a “human” right? • What does that right entail? • Who is responsible for protecting this right? • Does everyone have such a right to water? Equally?
Water Rights and Water Values Major Human Rights Instruments • UN Charter = promote “respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms” and it is the duty of all members to promote these goals • Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) (1948) • Preamble = human rights “should be protected by the rule of law” such that man has a recourse to demand what is deserved • Article 3 = “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” • UDHR Covenants (1964) • International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Art. 6 = “Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.” • International Covenant of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) • Art. 12 = right to an adequate standard of living as well as the right to “the highest attainable standard of physical . . . health.” • Art. 1 = “In no case, may a people be deprived of its own means of subsistence.” • European Convention on Human Rights (1950), art. 2 = “Everyone’s right to life shall be protected by law. No one shall be deprived of his life intentionally . . . . ”
