Women Rights

Water is considered as the life of any living creature. Even environment requires water to be in its natural form. Water is enshrined in the right to life and dignity, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Human Right to Water and Sanitation (HRWS) was recognized as a human right by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly on 28 July 2010.The HRWS has been recognized in international law through human rights treaties, declarations and other standards. The Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) of 1948 and International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) of 1966 implicitly recognized the HRWS. The clearest definition of the human right to water was issued by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in General Comment 15 drafted in 2002. It was a non-binding interpretation that access to water was a condition for the enjoyment of the right to an adequate standard of living, inextricably related to the right to the highest attainable standard of health, and therefore a human right. It stated: "The human right to water entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses." JWF recognizes such a right to an intrinsic resource as vital to all the citizens of the country. Bangladesh being a developing country has not only in rural areas but also in the cities been facing acute water crisis as reported weekly in the newspapers and television.

Yet, within these legal and regulatory frameworks, a range of actors have to play a role in ensuring the universal enjoyment by all rights-holders of access to safe, affordable, acceptable, and reliable water and sanitation services. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 1.7 billion people still lack access to clean water and 2.3 billion people suffer from water-borne diseases each year. JWF increases awareness through various posts and brochures to increase awareness of not wasting water and saving it for those in greater need of them. To provide guidance on the roles and responsibilities for everyone who contributes to the progressive realization of the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation (HRWS), and on how the human rights principles and actions can be incorporated into their essential functions, the International Water Association has developed the Manual of the Human Rights to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation for Practitioners. The Manual introduces a human rights perspective that will add value to informed decision making in the daily routine of operators of public utilities, managers of private sector companies, coordinators of public-private partnerships and NGO leaders providing water supply and sanitation services, and the independent regulators of such services. It also encourages its readership to engage actively in national dialogues where the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation are translated into national and local policies, laws and regulations. We aim to follow the regulations and to help our country not face a dire need of such a vital resource.