WRITTEN QUESTION P-0572/99

by Rinaldo Bontempi (PSE) to the Commission

(3 March 1999)

Subject: The right of all people to have access to water

The Commission has recognised, in various important initiatives (the Ground Water Action Plan, the framework directive on water, the Guidelines for water resources development and cooperation), the crucial importance of sustainable management of water resources in the public interest.

Despite these initiatives and other equally laudable measures taken at international level by UNDP, UNEP, the World Bank, FAO, WHO and WMO, for 1.5 billion people access to drinking water is a basic individual and collective human right which is not respected.

Recent experiences in connection with the privatisation of water resources and services - for example in the UK -give little reason to hope that the right to water will be guaranteed for all if the trend towards privatisation continues.

1. What does the Commission intend to do, beyond the initiatives it has taken already, to help ensure that the right to water is effectively guaranteed for the whole world population?

2. Does the Commission not agree that the European Union should undertake to promote an international initiative to ensure "Water for everybody"?

3. Does the Commission agree that, in the context of development cooperation and in view of the likelihood that, by the year 2020, in regions of the world such as Africa, Asia and Latin America, which already suffer from water shortages, the population will have increased by more than a billion, there is an urgent need to address the problem of water as one of the necessities of life, and hence as an aspect of the general question of respect for human rights?

Answer given by Mr Pinheiro on behalf of the Commission

(8 April 1999)

Access to drinking water and sanitation is one of the basic needs of the most vulnerable sections of the population and must be satisfied before poverty can be reduced and health improved. The Commission is providing help to countries which have made this a priority of their programmes through Community development aid. It also supports NGO projects. The participation of recipients in developing and managing basic services is a key factor in any water supply and sanitation project.

The Commission drew up (institutional, social and economic) guidelines with the Member States in a document entitled "Towards sustainable water resources management: a strategic approach" published at the end of 1998(1). This strategic approach is designed to help improve the quality and consistency of projects on water supply and sanitation in both rural and urban areas and suburban areas where facilities are often most lacking.

The Commission also pursues the question of access to water of a sufficient quality and quantity within the context of the wider European area. A protocol on water and health is being developed under the United Nations - Community (UN-EC) Convention on transboundary water courses and international lakes in close cooperation with the World health organisation (WHO)-Europe. A main focus of this protocol is sanitation of drinking water and treatment of urban waste water with the aim of securing provision of safe drinking water for all. The Commission is participating in this work together with the Member States as well as the Eastern and Central European countries. The protocol will be opened for signing at the forthcoming environment and health ministerial conference in London June 1999.

The Commission together with the Member States also plays a major role in the development of a integrated and sustainable water policy in the context of the UN commission for sustainable development(CSD) process.

(1) ISBN 92-828-4454-4.