Ref.: ER/Press/04/water.18/dG

Consumer Day to focus on Right to Water

Consumer organisations in Ahmedabad will observe World Consumer Rights Day in the city on Monday 15 March 2004, expressing solidarity with consumers worldwide. The Consumers International, London, a federation of 250 consumer organisations in 115 countries, has adopted ‘Water is a Consumer Right’ as the theme for the Day this Year. The Right to Satisfaction of Basic Needs includes the Right to Water, and the first priority of all governments should be to make safe and affordable drinking and wastewater services available to all consumers.

The organisations participating in the observance of the Day in the city on Monday are : Consumer Education and Research Society (CERS), Consumer Protection Council (CPC), and Manekchowk Grahak Suraksha Mandal, in cooperation with the State Government-run Consumer Protection Agency of Gujarat (CAPAG) and the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), Ahmedabad.

A rally organised on the occasion will leave the Mahatma Gandhi statue at 3 p.m. and hold a public meeting at 4 p.m. at the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) hall, both on Ashram Road, Ahmedabad.

It is now globally felt that water sector reforms must be assessed from the vantage point of consumer protection — and can be improved by the promotion of water as a Consumer Right.

The public meeting will highlight, among other issues, the discrepancy in access to and consumption of water in developed and developing countries, water-related diseases, need for adequate access to sanitation, etc.

Unconnected consumers commonly pay at least 10 times more, and sometimes up to 100 times more, per litre to vendors than do consumers hooked up to water networks.

Where the poorest are not connected, they have to buy from street vendors or trucks, which is always more expensive. Studies by CI members found that the poor pay more, with differentials ranging from 10-fold (Lima) to over 100 (Dominican Republic), Consumer organizations in Nairobi found that residents in informal settlements were paying as much as 10 times the network rate, and that attempts to regulate vendor prices failed.

Shocking Facts

The Governments the world over need to take note of the shocking fact that one in six of the world’s population (1.1 billion people) lacks an adequate supply of safe water. Two-fifths of the world’s population (2.4 billion people) lack access to proper sanitation. Most of these people live in Africa and Asia, with 1.3 billion in China and India. Two out of five people in sub-Sahara Africa lack improved water supply and less than half the population of Asia has access to improved sanitation. In the 1990s, the number of children killed by diarrhoea exceeded the number of people killed in all armed conflicts since the Second World War.

Water and Disease

The meeting will underline the fact that water-related diseases kill more than 5 million people every year. Cholera, typhoid and diarrhoea are transmitted by contaminated water. Most deaths are preventable with simple hygiene and water treatment. Diarrhoeal diseases cause 2.2 million deaths every year and are a primary cause of child mortality in the world’s cities. Intestinal worms infect about 10 per cent of the population of the developing world and can lead to malnutrition, anaemia and retarded growth. Malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, sleeping sickness, filariasis and other water-related vector-borne diseases are transmitted by mosquitoes, testse flies and others. Over 1 million people die every year from malaria, which is endemic throughout much of the developing world. Schistosomiasis (bilharzia) and guinea worm, while not fatal, affect 200 million people, with 20 million suffering from severe complications such as kidney failure, bladder cancer, and liver fibrosis.

Access to Sanitation

Access to sanitation that is convenient for all household members, affordable, and that eliminates contact with human excreta and other wastewater within the home and neighbourhood deserves priority. People in developed countries on average consume about 10 times more water daily than those in developing countries.

Hon’ble Mr. Justice M. S. Parikh, President, Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Gujarat State, will inaugurate the public meeting at the GCCI Hall and Mr. S. K. Nanda, I.A.S., Principal Secretary, Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Government of Gujarat, will preside over it. Consumer protection organisations will be represented among the speakers by Prof. Manubhai Shah, Chairman Emeritus, CERC, Dr. C. J. Shishoo, Trustee, Testing Organisation for Research in Chemicals and Health Hazards (TORCH), the in-house comparative product testing laboratory on the CERC-CERS campus, Ms Ushaben Sanghvi (CPC), and Mr. Manojbhai Shah (Manekchowk Grahak Suraksha Mandal).

Date : 14 March 2004
Place : Ahmedabad

Pritee Shah
Editor
INSIGHT - The Consumer Magazine

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Opinions, test results and research findings issued through this Press Release cannot be used in any form directly or indirectly for advertising, promotional or commercial purpose.

CONSUMER EDUCATION AND RESEARCH SOCIETY
“Suraksha Sankool”, Thaltej, Sarkhej-Gandhinagar Highway, Ahmedabad- 380 054 (INDIA)
Phone: 079-27489945-46 Fax: 079-27489947
E-mail: cerc@wilnetonline.net
Web Site: http://www.cercindia.org
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