Aware of 884 million people worldwide being without access to clean water and 2.6 billion people living without basic sanitation, which causes the death of 1.5 million children annually (more than die of AIDS, malaria and measles combined), the UN-member states voted in the General Assembly unanimously in favour of a resolution declaring the right to safe and clean water and sanitation as a human right. 443 million school days are lost each year as a result of water- and sanitation-related diseases. The resolution also calls upon all states to provide financial resources and technology transfer to developing countries, in order to support them providing clean water and sanitation for all. However, the human right to water and sanitation will not be binding under international law after all.

41 delegations abstained during the vote, among them mostly developed countries such as the US and the UK. They had serious misgivings that the resolution might force the state into the role of the only provider of water, even though the resolution is not ruling out the possibility of private water supply at all. Germany, however, voted in favour of the reached compromise.

From the GTO’s point of view the anchoring of clean water and adequate sanitation as a human right testifies to a strong symbolic signal to all political actors, and is therefore highly welcomed. Also, the text of the document demonstrates that in international politics the “dirty” taboo issue sanitation is finally enjoying the same status as the “clean” issue water. In public perception this is unfortunately not the case, yet. Even though the resolution declares the Human Right to Water and Sanitation, the media - for the most part - reports of an "Human Right to Water".