Vatican Message for World Water Day: “A Common Good … an Inalienable Right”

April 23rd, 2007

The Vatican issued a message on the occasion of World Water Day – March 22, 2007.

The message highlights the importance of access to healthy water and basic hygiene services and calls for the sustainable management of water.

“Access to water is in fact one of the inalienable rights of every human being, because it is a prerequisite for the realization of the majority of the other human rights, such as the rights to life, to food and to health.

For this reason, water “cannot be treated as just another commodity among many, and it must be used rationally and in solidarity with others. … The right to water … finds its basis in human dignity and not in any kind of merely quantitative assessment that considers water as a merely economic good. Without water, life is threatened. Therefore, the right to safe drinking water is a universal and inalienable right” (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, n. 485).”

Full text of the letter…

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