Yet water is the irreplaceable basis of all life on earth, and therefore the access to water must formally be recognised as a human right. At the end of 2002 an expert commission in the UN formulated this as follows:

Water is a limited natural resource and a public good fundamental for life and health. The human right to water is indispensable for leading a life in human dignity. It is a prerequisite for the realization of other human rights. 

The human right to water entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses. An adequate amount of safe water is necessary to prevent death from dehydration, to reduce the risk of water-related disease and to provide for consumption, cooking, personal and domestic hygienic requirements.

The adequacy of water should not be interpreted narrowly, by mere reference to volumetric quantities and technologies. Water should be treated as a social and cultural good, and not primarily as an economic good. The manner of the realization of the right to water must also be sustainable, ensuring that the right can be realized for present and future generations.

(UN, 2002, Economic and Social Council, Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, The right to water (Articles 11 and 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No 15 (2002) E/C.12/2002/11).

Meanwhile in Belgium there is a consensus about the fact that the access to water is best insured by considering water as a public good that better remains in the government’s hands. This is best proved by the water resolution "access to water for everyone", accepted on 14 April 2005 by the plenary meeting of the Chamber of People’s Representatives. After a campaign of 11.11.11, the cupola of the Flemish North-South movement, the Flemish municipalities (60 %) and provinces (80 %) too came to support this resolution.

"The right to water for everyone" was not incorporated into the ministers’ final declaration of the World Water Forum in Mexico (March 2006). On the one hand this was due to the fundamentally rejecting attitude of the US, and on the other hand to a number of developing countries who do not wish to have water supplies as a legal obligation in their country, since they cannot realise it anyways because of lack of resources (e.g. South Africa).

Nonetheless the general tendency of the World Water Forum was to consider "water is a right for everyone". Now even the water actors from the private sector declared this so.

Germany and Spain push the most to recognize water as a human right

In November 2006 Germany and Spain encouraged the newly formed Human Rights Council to have the OHCHR (the Office of the United Nation High Commissioner for Human Rights) made a comprehensive study on the recognition of drinking water as a human right.

The High Commissioner has presented his report to the General Assembly of the UN on the 13th of August 2007. Although the commissioner urges the UN to continue its considerations to recognize drinking water and sanitation as a human right, he also points out various, mostly legal issues that need to be clarified, but he also especially calls upon the member states to change the lack of attention for this subject on an international level.

During a “side-event” of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on 14 September 07, Germany and Spain further engaged to do something about this topic and to accelerate the recognition of drinking water and sanitation as a human right. They call upon other countries to give the necessary attention to the report, and to effectuate heavy lobbying as well, so that a decision would be made on the next Council’ meeting in March 2008 to start a special procedure for the definitive recognition of drinking water and sanitation as a human right.

According to the spokesman of the German government, Dr. Uschi Eid, “water” and “sanitation” are inextricably connected in this topic. The provision of pure drinking water can not be seen without the draining and treatment of waste water and excrements for the improvement of the general level of hygiene.
Dirt water and insufficient hygiene and sanitation provisions cause 80% of the diseases in developing countries and result in more deaths than Aids.
Therefore 2008 has been declared the “International year of sanitation” by the General Assembly of the UN.

Source: http://www.uschi-eid.de/pdf/MRR-speaking%20points%20genf.pdf