Federal Environment Minister welcomes the resolution by the UN General Assembly
The United Nations General Assembly, with a large majority, declared access to clean drinking water and basic sanitation to be a universal human right yesterday (28 July 2010). Germany has advocated such a decision for many years. It supported the resolution submitted by Bolivia and 33 other countries. Federal Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen welcomed the resolution.
"This resolution by the UN General Assembly is an important political signal at the half-way stage of the UN Water for Life Decade. It underlines the obligation on the part of the international community, but also individual governments, to drive forward the implementation of the set goals for improving drinking water supply and above all for providing people with basic sanitation. Water and its sustainable management are essential prerequisites for economic and social development and for providing food for a growing world population. Protecting this vital resource against overuse and pollution is therefore also a matter of economic common sense. This is why water management remains a key issue of our international cooperation," commented Minister Röttgen today in Bonn.