Detroit and the Universal Right of Water
Published on by Gema MartÃnez, Water Centre for Latin America and the Caribbean - PhD student
The UN panel openly positioned last week against the cut-offs suffered by a large number of people belonging to the economically vulnerable collectives in Detroit. UN officials clearly stated that " disconnection of water services because of failure to pay due to lack of means constitutes a violation of the human right to water and other international human rights ". On the other hand the Detroit Water Authority estimated $5 billion in debt and started to consider privatization as a potential getaway. The Recovery of Cost concept has been largely accepted among the developed countries; however, the existing mechanisms to putting this concept into practice still show controverted flaws.
Once more, what happened in Detroit brings us back to the universal debate on the Right of Water and the consequences of using water as an economic and political tool.
Is the access to fresh water a Universal Right? And in this case, how to manage this resource, recovering the investment costs at time than guaranty the universal supply? How can governments and national systems afford not only the maintenance of its supply but dealing with realistic economic forecasts? How the privatization could make sustainable the water management where water purveyance is not allowed to present any -planned or unplanned- weakness?