Water: Human Right or Necessity?

Developing a broader awareness of various global water crises during the month of March has been prompted, in part, by the UN’s Annual World Water Day on March 22nd.  Gospel for Asia has contributed several articles intended to bring attention to the drought in South Africa, the meeting of the World Water Forum in Brasilia, and a post about 12 major global cities facing water crises of one kind or another. Most notably, we published a Special Report documenting “THE GLOBAL CLEAN WATER CRISIS – Finding Solutions to Humanity’s Need for Pure, Safe Water.”

While these crises are very real and need to be addressed, we also live in a generation drowning in self-absorption flowing from previous generations of growing self-occupation. We are now in an era in which human rights are the battle cry for causes of all kinds. Recently, a major religious organization declared that water is a human right.

While it is not my desire to debate that issue, I do believe that claiming water as a human right is at the top of a slippery slope that will eventually lead to even more difficulty for already burdened people and restricted access to those currently without water access problems.

I believe that water is more than an issue of human rights. Access to water is existential. It is a matter of survival for every man, woman, and child on the planet.

Throughout the entire order of creation, God, in His infinite wisdom as our Creator, provided everything that necessary for the survival and benefit of the pinnacle of His creation – man made in God’s own image. He didn’t create man first and follow that by adding the things we would need for healthy existence. Only when He had a place fully prepared, did He create man.

Today, billions of people in the 10/40 window across Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia have limited access to clean water. A significant part of GFA’s humanitarian outreach is providing clean water and clean water sources to families and communities that are in desperate, existential situations.

  • Two billion people around the world use a drinking water source contaminated with feces.
  • 840 million people lack what is considered a basic drinking water service.
  • 502,000 deaths occur every year as a result of diseases contracted by the use of contaminated water.

The crisis is not one of human rights. It is one of human existence.

That is why Gospel for Asia (GFA) presses on, freely giving BioSand water filters and Jesus Wells. Each filter and each well installed not only provides a clean water source, it provides life and health and hope to individuals, families, and communities.

We are diligent in our calling, not because water is a human right, but because it is a necessity.


Click here to learn how you can help Gospel for Asia supply Jesus Wells.

Click here to learn how you can help Gospel for Asia supply BioSand water filters.

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