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Water As a Human Right
March 23 @ 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm
WORLD WATER DAY
Without access to clean water we cannot survive, let alone thrive. The United Nations has agreed that Water is a basic Human Right. They have enshrined it most recently (2015) making it Goal #6 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
TAKE ACTION!
Senator Kristen McDonald Rivet encourages everyone to contact your state senator and ask them to push for bringing Senate Bill 25 “The Human Right to Water act” out of committee and to the Senate floor for a vote.
When passed it will codify that every individual has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water – all the things that were discussed in the WWD program. SB 25 is intended to address all barriers to safe, clean water, including replacing old pipes, ensuring accessibility and affordability of water, cleaning up of contamination and protection from future contamination. So make the call to your Senator and then your state Representative to encourage introduction of a comparable bill in the Michigan House.
FIND YOUR STATE SENATOR CONTACT INFO HERE!
This program looked at the status of that human right both near and far with those working closely to close the gap between the right to clean water and sanitation and the reality. EVENT FLYER
We celebrated World Water Day with:
State Senator Kristen McDonald Rivet
co-sponsor of Senate Bill 0025, “Water as a Human Right”. State Senator Kristen McDonald Rivet (SD-35) serves Bay City, Midland, Saginaw and area townships.
Jeremy Orr
is a Detroit-based attorney and law professor at Michigan State University College of Law. Mr. Orr specializes in environmental and civil rights law with a primary focus on ensuring that overburdened communities have access to safe drinking water.
Mr. Orr also serves as the Vice-Chair of the Michigan Environmental Rules Review Committee and as a member of the U.S. EPA’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council.
Stephen Gasteyer
is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Michigan State University. His research focuses on community development, environmental justice, and the political ecology of landscape change, with specific attention food, energy, water, and public health.
Dr. Gasteyer was a 2015-16 Fulbright Scholar at Birzeit University, Ramallah, Palestinian territories. research consultant on issues of global water governance (2001-2002); UNAIS project worker on Agroecosystem research at the Applied Research Institute Jerusalem, and the Palestine Institute for Arid Lands and Environmental Studies, Palestinian territories (1993-1996); He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mali from 1987 through 1990.
Co-Sponsors:
Globally, 2.1 billion people lack access to safe, readily available water at home, and 4.5 billion people lack safely managed sanitation. Despite progress, significant challenges still remain for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal 6 and in addressing huge inequalities between and within countries in accessing basic water and sanitation services. LEARN MORE!
