Water as a human right for the Middle East and North Africa

Access to safe drinking water and proper sanitation is essential for human survival and for maintenance of a decent quality of life. Currently, more than a billion people do not have access to safe drinking water and more than 2 billion people lack proper sanitation. In 1992, the United Nations proclaimed that water should be considered to be a human right. This position, however, has not been accepted by many developed and developing countries. This book systematically and comprehensively analyses the legal development of the concept of water as a human right;

• Implications for national governments, and international and national organisations.

• Progress made on this front in different Middle East and North African countries.

• Obstacles to universal access to water-related services and how they can be overcome.

This book was previously published as a special issue of Water Resources Development.

http://www.idrc.ca/openebooks/380-5