Institute of Development Studies

UN Recognises Access to Water and Sanitation as a Human Right

2 August 2010 - Anna Maria Walnycki  

Today, 884 million people lack access to clean water and 2.6 billion are without access to sanitation. As a result, three and a half million people die from water-born illnesses each year. Future forecasts are equally bleak; a recent World Bank report states that by 2030 global water demand will exceed supply. Furthermore, it is likely that global warming and climate change will exacerbate water shortages for marginalized populations in the South. It is for these reasons that the Water Justice movement has been campaigning for over a decade, for the United Nations to recognize the Right to Water and Sanitation as a basic human right.

UK abstention

While no member states rejected the resolution, 41 abstained; predominantly from the north, these included the UK, USA, Canada and Australia. Most abstaining countries stated that they were unwilling to back the resolution because of the ongoing work of The Geneva Human Rights Council on countries’ obligations related to water and sanitation. Speaking on Democracy Now, Maude Barlow, founder of the Blue Planet Project, offered an alternative explanation, suggesting that the abstaining countries may be concerned that the resolution passed by the General Assembly, could have trans-boundary implications, could affect their water sovereignty, or could impact on the capacity of water-rich countries to profit from an increasingly scarce resource.

The Bolivian experience 

Bolivia, as the country that put forward the draft resolution, has been linked to the struggle for water justice since the Cochabamba Water Wars of 2000. The people of Cochabmba took to the streets to protest against the privatization of their water supplies that brought price hikes of up to 500%. The violent protests led to the cancellation of the Bechtel concession, and water provision was returned to the public provider SEMAPA. 

Over a decade later, and the day after the UN resolution was passed, I was in the southern barrios of Cochabamba, talking to the secretary of a local water committee. The Right to Water is now part of the Bolivian constitution - however, marginalized peri-urban communities such as these continue to rely on wells and pipelines that they build and manage in the difficult terrain of the dry Zona Sur. The secretary does not believe that the UN or the Bolivian government's commitment to the right to water and sanitation will help her committee. 'The government has forgotten about us,' she tells me, 'and so we have no choice but to provide for ourselves'.

The Zona Sur is not alone in feeling let down. While the Right to Water is enshrined in the constitution, the government pursues economic growth and development with policies and projects that threaten the sustainability of local water sources. Intensive mining continues in the southern Altiplano, which depletes and pollutes the subterranean water sources that quinoa growers rely on, and megadams are being proposed for the Amazon for energy exportation. Meanwhile, the government has not sufficiently invested in public water providers who continue to fail urban and peri-urban communities in Cochabamba.

No silver bullet 

Recognising the right to water is not a silver bullet solution to improving access to water and sanitation. The challenge is how to transform the discourse of rights into accessible rights for marginalized groups, in countries where resources are scarce, and the state-citizen relationship is weak. By recognising the right to water the international community is making a moral statement about its commitment to support southern countries to scale up efforts to provide safe, clean, accessible and affordable water and sanitation for all. 

'This resolution has the overwhelming support of a strong majority of countries, despite a handful of powerful opponents. It must now be followed-up with a renewed push for water justice,' says Anil Naidoo, Blue Planet Project organizer. 'We are calling for actions on the ground in communities around the world to ensure that the rights to water and sanitation are implemented'.

Anna Maria Walnycki is a DPhil candidate at the Institute of Development Studies