At a meeting in Kathmandu experts appealed to the Nepalese government to establish water and sanitation as fundamental rights in the new constitution. They want a high-level political statement that water and sanitation are also the government’s priorities.

At the current rate of progress, the government will miss its ambitious target of providing water and sanitation to all by 2017. “There is need for urgent action to meet the target in the given time,” said Rabin Lal Shrestha, research and advocacy manager at WaterAid in Nepal. According to Basanta Adhikari, legal expert, incorporation of water and sanitation as constitutional rights will help enforce a legal framework and take the government towards progressive realisation of the goal of providing safe water and sanitation to all. At the same time, constitutional reorganisation will benefit citizens enabling them to claim their fundamental rights.

Related news:

• Right to water: PLoS editorial promotes it, Californians to get it, Source Weekly, 05 Aug 2009
• Nepal: sanitation statistics point to losses of US$ 128 million, Source South Asia, 08 Sep 2008

Related web sites:

• COHRE Right to Water
• OHCHR - Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation
• The Right to Water

Source: Kathmandu Post / NGO Forum, 22 Aug 2009

Tags: advocacy, governance, sanitation, south asia, water supply