The Guardian: ‘Water is a human right … but it can have a price’
“The first time Catarina de Albuquerque made a presentation at World Water Week, people did not like what she had to say. It was 2009, she was just a year into her role as U.N. special rapporteur on the right to safe drinking water and sanitation, and delegates did not like her suggestion that people should pay for water. … Water can have a price as long as people are not excluded, responded de Albuquerque, and drew parallels with other human rights. There is a right to food, for example, but people will still pay for it in a supermarket…” (Purvis, 10/20).