A/RES/68/157
The human right to safe drinking water and sanitation
Reaffirming also its resolutions 58/217 of 23 December 2003, by which it
proclaimed the period from 2005 to 2015 the International Decade for Action,
“Water for Life”, and 65/154 of 20 December 2010, by which it declared 2013 the
International Year of Water Cooperation,
Recalling the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development of June 19928
and its resolution 66/288 of 27 July 2012, entitled “The future we want”, and
emphasizing the critical importance of water and sanitation within the three
dimensions of sustainable development,
Welcoming the holding of the plenary meeting of the General Assembly on the
human right to water and sanitation, on 27 July 2011,
Welcoming also the designation of 19 November as World Toilet Day, in the
context of Sanitation for All, pursuant to General Assembly resolution 67/291 of
24 July 2013,
Recalling general comment No. 15 (2002) of the Committee on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights on the right to water (articles 11 and 12 of the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), 9 and the
statement on the right to sanitation of the Committee of 19 November 2010, 10 as
well as the reports of the Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking
water and sanitation,
Deeply concerned that approximately 768 million people still lack access to
improved drinking water sources and that more than 2.5 billion do not have access
to improved sanitation facilities, including more than 1.04 billion people who still
practice open defecation, as defined by the World Health Organization and the
United Nations Children’s Fund in their 2013 update on the Joint Monitoring
Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation, and that these figures do not fully
capture the dimensions of water safety, the affordability of services and the safe
management of excreta and wastewater, as well as equality, non-discrimination and
differences between urban and rural areas, and therefore underestimate the numbers
of those without access to safe drinking water and sanitation,
Noting that the target of the Millennium Development Goals of halving, by
2015, the proportion of people without access to improved sources of water was
formally met five years ahead of schedule, and deeply concerned that the world
remains off track to meet the sanitation component of the same target, which called
for halving the proportion of the population without sustainable access to an
improved sanitation facility, that by 2015, if current trends continue, the world is set
to miss the target by more than half a billion people, and that inexistent or
inadequate sanitation facilities and serious deficiencies in water management and
wastewater treatment can have a negative impact on water provision and sustainable
access to safe drinking water,
Deeply concerned that women and girls often face particular barriers in
accessing water and sanitation and that they shoulder the main burden of collecting
household water in many parts of the world, restricting their time for other activities,
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8
Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, 3–14 June
1992, vol. I, Resolutions Adopted by the Conference (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.93.I.8 and
corrigendum), resolution 1, annex I.
9
See Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 2003, Supplement No. 2 (E/2003/22), annex IV.
10
Ibid., 2011, Supplement No. 2 (E/2011/22), annex VI.
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