Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

At the launch of the human development report I addressed the issue of the contradiction concerning what is regarded as the management of water as a scarce resource which is used as a vehicle for imposing privatisation of water supplies in different countries. This cannot be reconciled with the acceptance of water as a basic right. If one accepts water as a basic right, one arrives at a different point. This matter is not resolved in the UNDP report, as the Minister of State should know. Even if the millennium development goals were achieved, it would still leave 800 million people without clean water and 1.8 billion people without sanitation. Effectively, sub-Saharan Africa will not have access to clean water until 2040 and sanitation until 2076. I do not misquote the Minister of State. The world millennium development goals will only go so far. Even if they were to be achieved, they would leave this legacy to which I referred.

The Minister of State need not answer unless he wishes but General Covenant No. 15 clearly established the fact that it is not soft law anymore, it is hard law. One cannot deny people the water they need. This issue arises domestically. As a result of our signature to that, we could not do so if we are to interpret it properly. The second point in regard to the quotation the Minister of State has just given is the international aspect. Is it the position that the Government is on the side of the "right to water" group rather than on the side of the World Bank which takes a view on the management of water as a scarce resource? I remind the Minister that the way it works is that the World Bank advises that one shuts off the water to everybody and then allows them back on a charged basis. The UNDP report posits a figure of 20 litres a day which is half the World Health Organisation figure. The daily consumption in African countries is 5 litres, while it is 600 litres in the United States and 400 litres in Europe. Is the Minister of State in favour of the rights-based approach to water provision or the World Bank limitation view which is about facilitating the privatisation of water resources under the scam of suggesting that a scarce resource is being managed?

See this speech in context