Is water a human right?

This is an example of a child that does not have simple access 

to water. Most areas in the world are without access to water. 

This creates many issues other than dehydration. 

Other than dehydration, people who drink contaminated water

face many life threatening health issues. Contaminated water

may contain chemicals or other substances such and urine, feces,

parasites, etc. that can kill anyone that ingested them. Some countries do not

have the right to water because of larger, more powerful countries. 

   Although most people in developing countries have easy access to water and can drink it straight from the tap, we do not think about the fact that billions of other people in the world do not have the same access. As of 2011, the United Nations General Assembly stated that drinkable water should be a human right. This includes the fact that not only should water be plentiful and easy to access, but it should be clean and able to drink without the risk of illness. This is clearly much easier said than done. There is no specific plan in place to make sure that water is a human right because it would be too large scale. Deciding if water is a human right or not is solely based on opinion at the moment. The United Nations General Assembly also stated that water as a human right is more designed to give other rights as water and is used more as an umbrella statement for many smaller issues. As a country that has accessible access to water, we really cannot declare this to be true all over the world. As of 2015, 884 million people still do not have access to clean drinking water and the numbers are steadily rising. Along with no access to clean drinking water, 2.6 billion people do not have access to basic sanitation. Unfortunately, between 50 and 100 liters of water per person are needed everyday for basic needs including drinking water and sanitation needs. On the brighter side, the UN stated that: "Between 1998 and 2008, 1,052,000 urban dwellers gained access to improved drinking water and 813,000,000 to improved sanitation. However, the urban population in that period grew by 1,089,000 people and thus undermined the progress". The United Nations General Assembly also stated that 27% of urban dweller in the developing world do not have access to piped water at home.

In my opinion, I believe that water should be a human right but we must be aware that this right must not be taken for granted and must be shared with the rest of Earth. Water is also the right to animals and plants as well and it is our job as humans to maintain the water quality everywhere and make it safe for an organism to use. The more humans contaminate the remaining water on earth, more species of plants and animals will go extinct until we have nothing left. So far, we are doing a poor job of making sure water is accessible and sanitary for all humans and an even worse job making sure that it is sanitary enough for plant and animal use. Water is not a resource that we can automatically get more and more of. I believe that it a human right but human should also be limited on how much they use and how much waste they are putting into it.