Water is essential to human life — for basic health and survival, as well as food production and economic activities. Yet we are presently facing a global emergency in which over one billion people lack access to a basic supply of clean water and over two billion do not have access to adequate sanitation, the primary cause of diseases linked to water. It has frequently been argued in the international arena that the acknowledgement of water as a human right may prove to be the most important step in addressing the challenge of providing people with this most basic element of life.

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