By: Praveen Kumar
May 9 2023
No, the WEF hasn't said that water is not a human right or ordered governments to ration it
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Fact-Check
The Verdict False
The WEF and the U.N. have never advocated for taking away the human right to water. There is no evidence to support such a claim.
Claim ID 48cad8a6
Context
A post circulating on Facebook links to a Rumble video claiming the World Economic Forum (WEF) has partnered with the United Nations (U.N.) and declared that water is no longer a human right. The claim also says that the WEF has "ordered world governments to prepare to ration people's water supply" as part of The Great Reset to save the planet. Captions shared with this video mention WEF founder Klaus Schwab and claim that "elites" are taking ordinary people's rights from them.
The Rumble video in question is from the channel The People's Voice, which is known for spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories. In the video uploaded on April 12, NewsPunch writer Sean Adl-Tabatabai refers to an article published the same day by The People's Voice, aka NewsPunch. The article is titled "Water is Not a Human Right': WEF Orders Govt's To Begin Rationing Water Into Homes," and claims the WEF is trying to seize control of the world's water supplies. The video makes refers to the U.N.'s 2023 Water Conference.
In Fact
The Rumble video refers to the WEF's March 16 article titled "What is the U.N. 2023 Water Conference and why is it so important? Two experts explain." The article does not discuss taking away the human right to water. The WEF has never advocated for taking away the human right to water. Its global water supply issue report concerns demand and supply and the problems developing countries could face.
The U.N.'s Water Conference is an annual conference for better global water governance. The 2023 conference reiterated commitments by several countries and major corporations for the year, ranging from providing clean drinking water to millions of people to investments that support climate-resilient water and sanitation infrastructure and services to close the "water investments gap" in Africa.
Another reference made in the Rumble video is to a video clip from a 2005 documentary, "We Feed the World." In it, the CEO of Nestle Group, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, talked about the question of privatizing water as a commodity and opined that declaring water as a public right could be "extreme." However, the Rumble video does not use his complete take from the documentary. It is edited to make it seem like he does not support the human right to water. Nestle has since released a statement refuting the claim against him. "Our former Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe passionately believes water is a human right. Everyone, everywhere in the world, has the right to clean, safe water for drinking and sanitation. His critics use a video interview that Peter gave in 2005 to claim that he thinks all water sources should be privatized. This is false. He supports the United Nations' view on water," the statement read.
The U.N. still maintains its stance on the human right to water. It states, "Access to water and sanitation are recognized by the United Nations as human rights – fundamental to everyone's health, dignity and prosperity." There is no evidence that the WEF has ever suggested any government limit water supply to its people.
The Verdict
The WEF and the U.N. have never advocated away the human right to water. They have not instructed governments worldwide to limit the water supply to their people. Therefore, we have marked this claim false.