Community water security - UN-Water

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Water for Life
Water security is a right
Because water is a basic need for all life and good health, access to enough safe water,
or water security, is defined as a human right by international law. (See page 45 for
more information about international laws and the right to water.)
Water is nature’s gift, but there is a limit to what nature can provide. In many places
the amount of water for drinking is becoming dangerously low. Where land has been
paved and trees cut down, rain that once soaked into the ground and was stored as
groundwater now runs off into the ocean and becomes salt water. Much of the water
that is left is too polluted for human use.
The best way to protect our human right to water is to understand how water
becomes scarce and how it is contaminated. People working together to conserve
scarce water resources and share in decision making about how water is used, will
ensure community water security.
Most people are willing to pay a reasonable price for safe drinking water. But in
many places, water that people need for drinking is used by industry and agriculture
or sold at a price people cannot afford. Whether water is managed by the community,
by government, by private companies, or by a partnership of these groups, the people
who need water most must have a say in how it is priced, distributed, and used.
Everyone needs water