Water resources are polluted, over-extracted and dumped into oceans at an unprecendented rate worldwide, says Maude Barlow. A global water crisis is in the making, affecting particularly poor people in the global south.

In 2010, the access to clean water and sanitation has been recognized by the UN as a human right. Maude Barlow was  key to make that happen. Nevertheless, goverments all over the world are far from implementing this right in terms of concrete polcies. The UN water millennium goals are going to fail, says Barlow, although the UN claims to fulfill them, as the indicators are misleading.

Asia is, besides Africa, the continent which will most seriously be affected by the water crisis. The melting of the Himalayan glaciers due to climate change as well as the overuse and pollution of water resources by industry and agriculture, will present the growing populations in Asia with enormous challenges. Kontext TV with Mary Ann Manahan from the Philippines, water expert at the organisation Focus on the Global South, about the situation in Asia, especially in China and in the Philippines. We also asked her what she expects from the earth summit in Rio de Janeiro and about the concept represented there of a „green economy“.