You are here:
Clean water
Listen 
Game 
What does this mean?
It’s your right to have clean drinking water.
This right is connected to your right to be alive and to have your basic needs met, like having food, healthcare and a safe place to live.
In 2010, the United Nations declared that access to clean water and sanitation is a human right. This was already a right for children under the UNCRC.
EXAMPLE: The Government does checks to make sure the water quality in your area is safe for you to drink.
Learn more about this right
Do I have this right in Ireland?
- UNCRC, Article 24:It’s your right to have the best health care possible, safe water to drink, nutritious food, a clean and safe environment, and information to help you stay well.
- Under the Water Services Act 2013, it’s your right that your clean water is checked by Irish Water.
Doing a project?
- In 2016, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended that Ireland needs to make sure that sites where Traveller and Roma communities live have enough water and sanitation facilities, like toilets and showers.
- The UN suggests that each person needs 20-50 litres of water a day for their basic needs for drinking, cooking and cleaning.
- According to the UN, by 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with little access to water. Two thirds of the world’s population could be living in areas that don’t have enough water.
- A person can live about a month without food, but only about a week without water.
- Goal 6 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal’s focuses on ‘Clean Water and Sanitation’. Its goal is to make sure everyone has access to safe and affordable drinking water by 2030.
Links to other organisations
- Green Schools – Water is one of the key themes in the Green Schools programme.
- Eco-Unesco – ECO UNESCO works with young people to create a better understanding of the environment. Find out more about how you can get involved.
- Wateraid – Learn more about why having clean water is so important from the stories of people that WaterAid has worked with.
