Now Newark!: Enforcing Accountability for Water Quality

Water is life, and water quality is central to individual well-being  Yet news reports over the past few days highlight the latest “Flint Michigan-like” crisis in water quality, now in Newark.  Ignoring cautions about lead contamination, city leaders slow walked solutions until, earlier this week, they finally distributed water filters to Newark residents.  It’s a move that is too late for some, who trusted the city’s explicit message that “NEWARK WATER IS ABSOLUTELY SAFE TO DRINK” and allowed their young children to drink led-tainted water with potentially life-altering results.  

Unfortunately, this is a nationwide issue that is playing out in one community after another, as urban local governments, stretched thin by low tax bases and lack of support from Washington, try to cut costs in ways that may seem invisible to their constituents — until serious health issues crop up, as they have in Flint,  and now Newark.

With climate change likely to put even more stress on our water delivery systems, governments at all levels must take this issue more seriously and act affirmatively to head off yet more water crises. 

On October 19, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Water and Sanitation issued a report on accountability in the water sector.  Noting that water is often administered by local governments or private entities, he constructs “three-dimensional framework to describe and explain the concept of accountability in the water and sanitation sector aligned with human rights,” laying out the human rights obligations of each participant in the system.  The accountability schemes that he highlights will be of particular use to those seeking to redress the balance of power on these issues to ensure that rights-holders are heard and protected.

As activists (and hopefully, government actors) develop approaches to address the human needs in Newark, to stem the ongoing crisis in Flint, and to head off further human suffering, the Special Rapporteur’s report can provide a guide to establishing early warning mechanisms, sound interventions, and new priorities designed to protect water as a central human right and the very root of human life.