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New Zealand takes this opportunity to explain its abstention on this vote.
New Zealand fully appreciates the importance of clean water and sanitation to development and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). We recognise that safe drinking water and sanitation are essential for good health. We wish to see progress in this area.
However, we are concerned that the resolution before us has arisen before New Zealand, and other countries, have had an adequate opportunity to fully consider it in terms of both our domestic and international obligations.
We support the work of the Human Rights Council and in particular of the Independent Expert to clarify the content of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation.
New Zealand believes that the work of the Independent Expert raises issues that require further consideration by States.
