This last general Assembly of the UN in New York on September 25th 2010 declared Water to be a human right.
The Environmental Parliament worked hard to accomplish this and now s time to rejoice and reflect. Yet not for too long… because times are a changing.
Adding water as a basic Human Right to the sixty year old Charter of Human Rights is an awesome feat.
Now the Human Rights Carta is a bit more complete…
Your Life is richer as a consequence.
More value has been enshrined towards all human Beings…
Fancy that eh?
A bunch of people from all over the world getting together and creating consensus towards the betterment of humanity and thereby enriching your Life is pretty awesome.
But what does this mean?
How is this relevant to You and Yours?
What are the benefit policies for the bottom of the pyramid?
Or for those of You on the upper part of it or in the middle or wherever you might be willing to place yourself — how is this relevant?
And as a leader, lawmaker, senator, congressman, or elected MP, where is the clear Public benefit you can translate to voters?
Or as a corporate leader, how can you be adept at CSR and still be able to give value back to society through your water usage pattern and also by creating shared value?
To investigate, to understand, and to create Policies reflecting this new founded human right across the globe, we have a High Level Ministerial Summit Conference this October with the Nepalese government and the United Nations in Kathmandu facing the Himalay glaciers.
Why there?
Because the Himalay mountains and the Tibetan plateau is the life support system for much of the planet.
Surprising, strange and impressive as this might sound — it is true.
This Himalayan landscape regulates the rainfall globally and allows for the monsoons to exist.
Even more strange, is that this is ancient wisdom.
And it conforms well with the current state of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and physical scientific research globally.
And somehow in the centre of it is Mt Kailash which is claimed to be the axis of the earth — this belief is steeped in ancient wisdom now at least fifteen thousand years old — as claimed in the Vedic literature.
Even the Buddhist ”Pali” language reflects that belief and today’s people revere the plateau for its Life giving forces.
With 80% of it’s glaciers scheduled to disappear in the next thirty years, Tibet represents the crucible of Climate Change.
A third of the planet’s human thirst, agriculture and animal populations depend for water on the Tibetan plateau glacier runoff and the highlands precipitation from there to flowing rivers and for regulating the engine of the Monsoons and allowing us to drink fresh water, and grow food.
Amazingly, six hundred million Chinese and two billion SE Asian people in total, depend on the Tibetan plateau glaciers and precipitation for water…
And with Tibet representing a quarter of the land mass of China this is the engine of our world’s climate and atmospheric health.
That is why we launched the 5th EP water conference in Katmandu Nepal — scheduled for October 12th – 15th.
Because now after 13 years of serious work, we have managed to have water included as a Human Right at the United Nations Charter of Human Rights and we need to translate to people what does this mean.
It has taken thirteen years of work and three years of full scale involvement and the annual water conference of the EP to accomplish this majestic feat of public advocacy and policy delivery — but now we are there and we need to define it further.
Define Water as a Human Right for the benefit of all the Peoples.
Especially for the benefit of the ones least responsible for the CLimate Change and most vulnerable to it.
For a future fair for all, we need to define it and explain it in terms of common sense policy across the globe.
That is why we invite all the Ministers of the Environment and Agriculture from the global South to join us.
Because we need to explain the vast benefits stemming from it for their vulnerable people.
To explain it in simple terms…
In practical terms.
To have a positive effect soonest.
Yours,
Pano
PS:
What does water as a human right means for you?
Let us know and you can join us in Nepal this October 11th.
The first one hundred entries will be invited to attend.
