Clean water is a human right: the right to life, personal development and an adequate standard of living is meaningless without water. If water is available and rights are respected, however, then water is capable of saving lives and even preventing population displacement. This is the goal in places like Ethiopia, where Kemira is working for clean water in partnership with the development co-operation organisation Plan.
Every year 123 Ethiopian children in a thousand fail to reach their fifth birthday, and in most cases the reason for this premature death is diarrhoea or malnutrition due to contaminated water.
Together with the development co-operation organisation Plan, Kemira is working in Ethiopia to check the spread of infectious diseases and malnutrition among children. This work is done by ensuring that as many people as possible have access to clean water supplies and proper sanitation.
This is human rights work at the sharp end.
Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees to everyone the right to life, liberty and security of person. Neither this, nor many other human rights are meaningful without clean water. There is no way to talk about security of person when contaminated water can make you ill at any time.
People must know how to use water
In practice Plan and Kemira have been constructing clean water supply points, rainwater collection systems and wells in the Shebedino and Jimma territories of Ethiopia.
The work also involves training local people to distinguish clean and contaminated water sources, to dispose of waste correctly and to attend to personal hygiene. Adults are shown how to take better care of their children.
“This isn’t just about making water available, but is also about information,” says Annukka von Kaufmann, Plan Finland’s Programme Manager for East and Southern Africa. “People have to know precisely why it’s important to use clean water, how problems like diarrhoea can spread, and how to prevent diseases.”
Water makes life possible
The need for clean water, sanitation and public education in Ethiopia looks set to grow still further.
Already this year alone drought has driven more than 6 million people in Ethiopia to the brink of famine and dependency on international food aid, and the deteriorating drought situation in East Africa is forecast to continue.
Recent research conducted by the United Nations Environmental Programme UNEP and elsewhere suggests that extended severe dry seasons will probably increase throughout the Nile Basin. Water shortages will worsen rapidly and may constitute a major threat to the status quo in the region. Ethiopia is one of the Nile Basin countries.
A worsening drought will probably also displace an increasing number of Ethiopians and other East Africans from their homes for environmental reasons. When life at home is no longer sustainable, then people must leave in search of viable conditions elsewhere.
This means that clean water and sanitation can ideally also prevent environmental population displacement, as water enables people to remain in their homes.
The incidence of illness also decreases when clean water is available. People can then grow their own crops and the harvest is uncontaminated. This reduces the pressure to migrate in search of a better life.
Further details of the work of Plan in Ethiopia are available in Finnish on Plan website.
Plan and Kemira: a partnership for water
- Kemira and Plan are working together to safeguard the rights of children to water, health and development in Ethiopia, Bolivia and China.
- An early education programme in Bolivia promotes comprehensive child development beginning at pregnancy. This includes training parents and foster parents in providing a stimulating environment, proper nutrition and clean water in early childhood, and in the importance of hygiene.
- A community-based water and sanitation project is under way in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of northern China. Ningxia is one of the poorest regions of China, and only 39.5 per cent of its population have access to clean drinking water.
- The programme focusing on the survival and development of children in Ethiopia divides its efforts between improving water and sanitation services and preventing diseases of infancy and childhood.
- Plan is a development co-operation organisation dedicated to achieving a sustained improvement in the quality of life of children in developing countries. The organisation operates in 66 countries and has adopted 1.3 million godchildren, through which it reaches more than 15 million children and their families in developing countries.
- World Water Day was celebrated on 22 March this year on the theme of water quality.
Learn more about Kemira's partnership with Plan:
Human right to water (.pdf)