World Water Day

Rachel Hopkins Excerpts

Thursday 18th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Hopkins (Luton South) (Lab) [V]]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Stockport (Navendu Mishra) on securing this vitally important debate for World Water Day.

Clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene are key foundations to supporting communities to break free from extreme poverty and inequality. Water Aid’s mission statement says:

“Some people dream of finding water on Mars. Others dream of finding it here on Earth.”

While developed countries continue to rightly seek progress, we have to recognise that the basic life-sustaining rights we are afforded need to be replicated in deprived areas across the world. I recognise that progress has been made, as 1.7 billion people have gained access to safely managed sanitation since 2000, but there is still a long way to go. Some 55% of the global population still do not have access to safe sanitation, and 2 billion people lack access to safe water for drinking, cooking or personal use.

We have seen over the past year how a shortage of clean water for handwashing, sanitation and general hygiene in healthcare facilities worldwide has undermined countries’ covid response. The lack of access to water in hospitals and clinics has risked the lives of health workers and patients as well as potentially perpetuating the pandemic.

Without concerted international action, the situation in the global south is going to quickly deteriorate because of the climate emergency. It is the world’s most vulnerable who bear the brunt of climate breakdown despite having contributed to it the least. Extreme weather such as prolonged droughts is drying up water sources, while rising sea levels and flooding are contaminating ill-protected water supplies. The Environmental Justice Foundation has estimated that one in every seven people in Bangladesh will be displaced by climate change by 2050. Former Governor of the Bank of England and UN special envoy Mark Carney has said:

“When you look at climate change from a human mortality perspective, it will be the equivalent of a coronavirus crisis every year from the middle of this century, and every year, not just a one-off event.”

It is shameful that when faced with such a huge injustice, the Conservative Government decide to step back from their international commitments by slashing the overseas aid budget from 0.7% of GNI to 0.5%. The Government must not renege on our internationally binding obligation to work collaboratively to guarantee access to water and sanitation for all by 2030 under the 2015 UN sustainable development goals.

As well as addressing water scarcity in developing countries, the UK also has an obligation to ensure that it is not wasted domestically. The Tories’ privatisation of water has been a disaster. People have been left without water for days and trillions of litres of water have been lost through leakages, all while billions of pounds of bill payers’ money is siphoned off in dividend payments to wealthy shareholders. The only way to end the dismal mistreatment of our utilities in the UK that is impacting the public’s pocket and our planet is by bringing water back into democratic public ownership.

I echo the comments by my hon. Friend the Member for Stockport about the Flint, Michigan water scandal. In Flint, privatised water has had dire consequences for the local community. Private water company Veolia and former governor Rick Snyder prioritised profit over people and the environment, subsequently poisoning a predominantly African-American and economically poor community. If the terrible situation in Flint is to teach us anything, it is that access to water is a right and not a commodity to be profited from.

Uyghur Slave Labour: Xinjiang

Rachel Hopkins Excerpts

Wednesday 16th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Nigel Adams]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise this issue, as he has on other occasions. Of course we will continue to call out China when it abuses its international obligations. We have announced new measures that will strengthen the Modern Slavery Act. As soon as an opportunity arises, we will bring those to the House. I would ask my right hon. Friend to be a little patient, into the new year, on the other measures we hope to bring forward following our consultations across Government.

[Rachel Hopkins (Luton South) (Lab)]

The abhorrent persecution of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang by the Chinese Government must receive sustained international condemnation. The UK Government must be a key player in that and must not sit back and let the abuses continue. What steps is the Foreign Secretary taking to support the appointment of a UN special rapporteur for the investigation of forced labour and ethnic persecution in Xinjiang?

[Nigel Adams]

We have been leading on this issue internationally, and I referred to the 38 other countries that joined us at the UN in one of the many statements that we have made on this issue. However, any action we take at the UN has to have an opportunity of succeeding, and there is no point bringing forward measures that will potentially give the intended target a propaganda coup.

Belarus: Presidential Elections

Rachel Hopkins Excerpts

Thursday 24th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

We have made it clear that we do not accept the illegitimate election that took place. We will watch carefully. The consistent practice of the UK has been to recognise states rather than Governments, but we have been clear that this is an illegitimate election that cannot produce a legitimate result.

On the Baltic states, they are our friends and NATO allies, and I recently saw the Lithuanian Foreign Minister. We have been working closely with them because not only do we share the same values but they will feel under threat as close neighbours to Belarus and indeed Russia. They need stalwart support now from the United Kingdom.

[Rachel Hopkins (Luton South) (Lab)]

I am pleased to hear the Secretary of State talk about how we must support and strengthen civil society, but many trade unionists in Belarus have been arrested. What conversations has he had with the European Trade Union Confederation and trade unions to support the role that trade unions play in civil society in Belarus?

[Dominic Raab]

I think it is true to say that, particularly in eastern and central Europe—I think in particular of Czechoslovakia, where my father came from—the trade union movement has been closely aligned with the human rights movement and the cause of liberty for many years, including under the Soviet Union. I join her in the spirit of solidarity with unions that are feeling imperilled at this time. We certainly stand with them, as we do with the journalists, for the basic principles of freedom and liberty that unite us all.

Yemen

Rachel Hopkins Excerpts

Thursday 24th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Hopkins (Luton South) (Lab)]

Like other hon. Members across the House, I am deeply concerned about the situation in Yemen, as are many of my constituents, with over 900 people in Luton South signing the parliamentary petition relating to the subject of this debate.

I want to focus on the health and humanitarian crises caused by the conflict, which are exacerbated by the covid-19 pandemic. Before the global pandemic, Yemen had already been described by the UN as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. More than 20 million people require urgent humanitarian assistance. The threat of famine is very real. People are struggling to access food due to the logistical challenges posed by the blockade. UN official Sir Mark Lowcock has said that, because aid has been cut, the UN is barely able to give food to half the people it is reaching. Fundamentally, this comes down to powerful countries choosing to abandon the people of Yemen in the middle of a global pandemic.

The virus thrives on vulnerabilities and chaos. The UN has warned that covid-19 could spread faster and more widely, and with deadlier consequences, than in many other countries, due to the hundreds of thousands of people displaced in camps. Poor access to water and sanitation is helping the virus to spread. The country’s health infrastructure is close to collapse, and there is only enough capacity to treat those in the most critical situations. Malnutrition is ravaging the youth of Yemen, but only half of the health facilities are operational and there are huge shortages of medicines, equipment and staff.

In July, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine estimated that there are 1 million covid infections in Yemen, with the forecast that without concerted action, cases could rise to 11 million and cause 85,000 deaths.

We have a moral duty not to leave the people of Yemen in their time of need. Every report in the country shows growing misery and desperation, but instead of maintaining aid through this critical period, powerful countries have decided to cut aid for Yemen. While the Government state that they are very concerned about the situation, according to the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, they have more than halved their aid, from £253 million in 2019, to £125 million in 2020. This will severely impact on healthcare services for Yemeni civilians, with some forced to close.

UNICEF states that, without additional aid funding, millions of children in Yemen could be pushed to the brink of starvation. As Dr Ali Al Ashwal, who works in a hospital in Hajjah, north-west of the capital Sana’a, told CNN:

“Those who aren’t killed by the airstrikes or this war? They will die form shortages in medical supplies”.

I urge the Government to take global leadership on this issue and call for increased aid to support the people of Yemen.