A right, or a need?

IS water a right or a need?

That seems to have been the bone of contention at the just concluded 5th World Water Forum. Even as international delegates from more than 100 ministerial delegations agreed to non-binding measures to address pollution, floods, and disputes over water, this dispute over a definition prevented the declaration from being adopted in the official ministerial form.

The United States, Egypt, and Brazil objected to the former terminology, which was, in the end, not adopted in the official ministerial statement. Dissenting delegates from more than twenty countries, primarily in Latin America, released a counter-declaration following the official end of the forum saying that they recognize access to water and sanitation as a human right.

Nine of those countries--Benin, Bolivia. Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, and Venezuela--also signed a statement calling for future water forums to be organized within the framework of the United Nations.

Meanwhile the Istanbul Water Consensus, included the assertions that:
Access to good quality water and sanitation is a basic right for all human beings and plays an essential role in life and livelihoods, the preservation of the health of the population and the fight against poverty;
Water is a public good and should therefore be under public control, even when its services are delegated partly or totally to the private sector;
Sanitation is equally important as water supply and needs to be given due consideration on the political agenda of local, regional and national governments.

Share your thoughts with us. How should water be qualified? Should water be privatised, or only the services? (With the state in charge of the pricing and ownership) This could ensure efficiency and a control on prices.