According to the U.N., everyone has a right to clean water and sanitation. If that’s not obvious, we don’t know what is.Photo courtesy of uncultured via flickr

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday recognized access to clean water and sanitation as a human right.

After more than 15 years of debate on the issue, 122 countries voted in favor of a compromise to a Bolivian resolution enshrining the right, while 41 abstained.

The text “declares the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of the right to life.”

The resolution laments the fact that 884 million people lack access to safe drinking water and that 2.6 billion do not have access to basic sanitation.

It notes that roughly 2 million people die every year from diseases caused by unsafe water and sanitation, most of them small children. And it points to the pledge made by world leaders in 2000 as part of the poverty-fighting Millennium Development Goals to reduce by half, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation.

The resolution urges states and international organizations to provide financial and technological assistance to help developing countries “scale up efforts to provide safe, clean, accessible, and affordable water and sanitation for all.”