Problems of ensuring the public’s right of access to information on the quality of drinking water

Abstract

It is indicated that the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitary and hygienic services, which are fundamental for a full life, the exercise of all human rights and ensuring human dignity, are enshrined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other Persons Providing Services in Rural Areas in the article 21. The authors keep the goal of the article to themselves - to analyze the provision of citizens’ rights to access to information about the state of water quality, in the context of global climate change and taking into account the sharp deterioration of Ukraine’s ecosystem as a result of large-scale military operations.
 This study is devoted to issues of ensuring unimpeded access of citizens to information on the state of drinking water quality, as a component of information on the state of the environment. The article analyzes domestic legislation that regulates the issue of access to information about the state of drinking water quality and the corresponding provision of such access as an inalienable constitutional right of every citizen of Ukraine.
 It was established that the population’s access to information about the state of drinking water is gradually limited, which poses threats to both human health and the natural environment. This is especially unacceptable during the war, when the ecological situation ends literally every hour. Consistently, relations in the field of drinking water use and protection require unified legal regulation at the national and international levels. Thanks to this, conditions are created at the legislative level for open access of citizens to information about the state of water resources, sources of water supply, as well as raising the level of public awareness in the field of protection of environmental rights, especially the right to free access to information about the state of drinking water. This approach will contribute not only to the protection of public health, but also to the preservation of the natural environment and the achievement of sustainable development goals.