Letters to the Editor: Universal access to clean water a basic right, not a long-term goal
People fill water containers at a distribution point due to water outages in Khartoum, Sudan. Picutre: AP
The United Nations now admits the goal of universal access by 2030 is âincreasingly out of reachâ. A recent report indicates that progress has been insufficient to meet the deadline, with the situation particularly challenging in sub-Saharan Africa. That should not be a headline we skim over. It should be a scandal that keeps us awake at night. That is a polite way of saying we are failing catastrophically and people are dying because of it.
What does it say about our world that millions of children still drink from streams, rivers, and ponds shared with livestock, that women and girls still walk for hours carrying jerry cans, and cholera still tears through communities from Malawi to Mozambique? That, in sub-Saharan Africa alone, 400m people are left behind without safe water while those of us in the Global North flush drinking water down our toilets and casually buy plastic bottles of water in some cases at inflated prices? That in 2025, girls still miss school because there are no safe toilets, and mothers still bury their children from preventable diarrhoea?
Water is not a luxury. As the UN declared in 2010, access to clean water is a basic human right. Water, sanitation, and hygiene are not privileges for the few, they are basic human rights for each and everyone of us on this beautiful planet that has gotten very ugly over the years. And yet, we have tolerated a global system where billions can turn on a tap without a thought, while billions more walk for hours, carrying dirty water that will make their families sick.
The hypocrisy is grotesque. We can find trillions for weapons, for bailing out banks, for luxury consumption. But when it comes to ensuring that a mother in Malawi or a farmer in Ethiopia has safe water, suddenly the money runs dry. What does that say about our values? About whose lives we believe matter?
Yes, there are solutions. Solar-powered pumps in Malawi, community-led sanitation in Nigeria, rainwater harvesting across Africa are changing lives daily. But progress at this pace means universal access wonât come until after 2070. Will we really look another generation in the eye and tell them that clean water was too ambitious?
World Water Week in Stockholm must not be another exercise in polite speeches and glossy reports. Governments must treat water as a political priority, not an afterthought, and must be forced to act, not tomorrow, not in 2030, but now. Donors must finally close the yawning funding gap. Corporations must be held to account for pollution, over-extraction, and profiteering. And we, the comfortable few with taps in our kitchens, must stop looking away.
As Archbishop Desmond Tutu warned: âIf you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.â Neutrality in the face of this scandal is complicity. Silence is complicity.
The measure of our humanity is simple: Who gets to turn on a tap, and who does not. Right now, the answer condemns us all.
Shame on the USA for its hand in the desecration of Gaza and the genocide of the Palestinian people. And how unfair on the many decent American citizens whose taxes are being used for the ethnic cleansing of a whole population.
Some praise at least is due to those senior Israeli military personnel whoâve implored Donald Trump to rein in Benjamin Netanyahu and his ruthless agenda of atrocities in Gaza as he drives on with his ever-expanding military objectives of destruction, occupation, annexation, and expulsion â without any thought for the appalling suffering of the whole Palestinian people, nor indeed for the unfortunate remaining hostages either.
What we are seeing now is starkly reminiscent of the horrors of the 1940s under the Nazi regime: People in their millions dispossessed from their homes, crowded into ghettos, starved to death, torn limb from limb, reporters, journalists, and camera operators killed along with the medics, a whole race dehumanised.
This time there are no excuses. We all know what is going on and if we fail to raise our voices in deafening protest, force our governments out of their inertia, boycott the aggressors in every way, then the shame and guilt of this terrible catastrophe will fall, not only on the perpetrators and their allies, but on every one of us who turned the other way.
Thank you for publishing the timely and welcome article by Diarmaid Twomey ( âBusiness ideology has no place in care services and social workâ, August 26).
We have been raising the issue of corporate speak and business ideology for a long time now, based on what we hear from frustrated caring staff at all levels, and indeed from people attempting to avail of services.
The spreadsheets, the box-ticking, time allotted for interaction with people designed by people far removed from fellow human beings. This, of course, is seen as important to facilitate funding!
It is worth noting that the business model sadly is widespread in the NGO sector, where listening to people and giving them time is increasingly seen as âwasting time with peopleâ.
After 50 years working in the field, it is clear that âinstitutional careâ has been replaced with another form of âhierarchical careâ, and we too all wish for the urgent return to the fundamentals of person-centred care. âHope springs eternalâ â this will only happen if people speak out instead of saying thatâs the way it is and carry on regardless.
The recent garda crime stats, to the end of June 2025, shows a marked decrease in some of the major issues of criminal activity reported to An Garda SĂochĂĄna.
Crimes against businesses and the person are down while fraud, arson, rape, sexual assault, public order, and arson have all see either a dramatic increases or small increases in reporting.
Fraud, at 73%, is concerning, but that is due to financial institutions and other type services, like Revolut, mandatory reporting under Section 9 of the Criminal Justice Act 2011 to the gardaĂ, and the fact is that there is a backlog of tens of thousands of outstanding reports yet to be processed.
The CSO has paused the publication of these stats until the true extent of whatâs been reported is available.
While the issue of reporting crime is always a community led response, we cannot overlook the fact that there is a reluctance by some people or businesses, unless compelled to do so, as in the Section 9 reporting, to report a crime. The reasons for this are complex but not unassailable.
There is a reluctance by people or even businesses to report, or get involved in reporting, a crime because of delays in follow-ups, going to court as a witness, or the fear of retaliatory action.
The other factors involved are the realignment of districts and divisions, the lack of personnel to answer the many thousands of calls they receive every day â 1.2 m calls handled in 2024, 38% of those transferred from local garda stations to call centres â the delays in passing public calls to call centres, and the delays in response, may also be the cause of certain crime reporting reductions.
While a lot of good work is being done at the coalface by frontline personnel, the reality facing the good citizens of this State is much different.
Statistics should not be a barometer of policing, it is only an aid. The real cornerstone of policing is visibility, prevention, and response.
Only then will we get a true figure of how our gardaĂ are responding to the genuine concerns of the citizens and businesses of this State.
Lets cut out the waffle and nonsensical bureaucratic statistical barriers that have been inhibitors to policing and lets get back to the simple form of everyday crime prevention.
There has been much discussion about the upcoming renewal date of Israeli war bonds by the Central Bank, with a large cry to block them.
In recent weeks the Israeli regime has ratcheted up its actions in Gaza, deliberately targeting civilians, journalists, and medics. The proposed forced expulsion of civilians from Gaza City, against, it seems, the wishes of the Israeli population, provides further evidence of Netanyahuâs malevolence.
How can the EU and the Irish Government allow the renewal of these bonds under these circumstances?
It is depressing how much EU and UK leadership has lost itâs moral compass when it comes to direct action against the Israeli regime. The issuing of strongly-worded statements in light of the horror being perpetuated is pathetic.
Now is the time for a real response, where it hurts. Stop the renewal of the bonds and enact the Occupied Territories Bill. Time for moral leadership.
