WATER

This burden affects women and girls more severely, with a pervasive negative impact on areas like education and gender equality. And the problem seems to be even more complex for people living in isolated rural areas. Here, the denial of this basic Human Right has profound repercussions on health, education, and general economic development. Ultimately, it impedes almost all attempts to realize other human rights and pursue a prosperous life. And even if some indicators have improved in the past decades, a new 2021 joint report from the World Health Organization and UNICEF paints a dire picture.

Unless the rate of progress quadruples, by 2030, 1.6 billion people won't have access to safe drinking water at home, 2.8 billion won't have safe sanitation services, and 1.9 won't have basic handwashing facilities. Looking at the available numbers and trends, it can be easy to overlook that many communities in the Global North are also being denied this basic Human Right. In the US alone, according to data from the Environmental Protection Agency, over 30 million people lived in areas where water systems violated safety rules at the beginning of 2019.

Poor people and minority communities are hit hardest, as is usual with almost all environmental and climate change-related issues: an estimated 1 in 10 Indigenous Americans lack access to safe tap water or basic sanitation. These numbers become increasingly unfair if we consider how most Indigenous Peoples have nurtured a balanced relationship with nature from time immemorial.

This harmonious relationship guarantees the health of both these populations and the ecosystems to which they belong. Moreover, the extractive industries imperiling and damaging water resources, whether by contamination or driving climate change, seem to bring no single benefit to the people most affected by it. All over the world, communities without any polluting record are the first to endure ever more frequent droughts and natural disasters resulting from anthropogenic climate change.