Access to drinking water is a human right – release
The celebration of World Water Day on March 22 has catalyzed many speeches in favor of the right to drinking water. If the water is the most vital of the needs after air, it is also a prerequisite necessary for the exercise of all other rights. Drinking, cooking, washing and washing your clothes are as many essential conditions for leading a dignified life, preserving your health or accessing school and employment. However, contrary to popular belief, access to water is still not an achievement for everyone, or in Europe, nor in France.
Since 2010, The UN consider the right to water and sanitation as a human right. France, it testifies to timid advanced in the matter. Since the 2006 water and aquatic environments, the environment code provides that « Each natural person has the right to access drinking water ». In 2013, the Brottes law prohibited water cuts throughout the year, even in the event of unpaid. The transposition of the European directive « drinking water » brought a new room to the building by defining the basic drinking water needs and by creating the obligation for local authorities to improve its access for all.
But this legal construction remains fragile. The legal provisions are not, to date, are not enforceable against the authorities by the litigants. Despite several parliamentary initiatives in this sense, France still refuses to clearly consecrate in its constitutional block a fundamental right to drinking water and sanitation. The government has however been pinned several times by internal jurisdictions And the UN on the situation of precarious people in water and the attacks on the dignity which result from it.
Territorial inequalities between hexagon and overseas, stigma of people living in informal or precarious habitat … Many are the overlapping discrimination with access to drinking water. It is estimated today in several hundred thousands the number of people assigned in France. Of the 350,000 homeless (according to the 30th report on the state of poor housing of the Foundation for the Housing of the disadvantaged, published in February), the public authorities identify 65,333 inhabitants of slums and squats (1). These estimates do not take into account a multitude of other situations: people in transit on the Franco-British border, living in degraded condominiums, on reception areas with defective infrastructure, etc. Every day, our teams meet people for whom access to drinking water is a daily battle. These men, women and children are forced to use public fountains, fire terminals or rivers sometimes several kilometers, often traveled on foot.
The sharing of water, a common good of humanity, is undoubtedly the issue of our century. Often apprehended by environmental prism, access to water for all is also a question of social justice. While climate change has strong and rapid consequences on the availability of the water resources, it is urgent that the right to water is protected and implemented without discrimination. This year marks the five years of the opening of international solidarity programs in France. Since 2020, our NGO has endeavored to demonstrate tirelessly that guaranteeing worthy and secure access to drinking water for the most precarious is not based on technical, financial or legal obstacles, but of course political choices. Today more than ever, it is essential to continue to fight for the effectiveness of this right for all.
(1) Interministerial delegation for accommodation and access to housing (Dihal), « slum resorption », March 2025.
