The Right to Water and Sanitation: Approaches and Practical Implications

Wednesday 20 August
Afternoon Seminar

Convenors: Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DGIS), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) and Swedish Water House (SWH)

Event Summary and Conclusions

Using case studies from South Africa, India, Kenya and Argentina, Europe and the CIS the seminar examined approaches to and practical implications of the Human Right to Water and Sanitation defined as the “right of everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses” by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 2002. As an authoritative statement, this entails an obligation for governments to implement it.
The case studies pointed to difficulties in ensuring that policies and mechanisms for allocating safe and affordable water favour the poor and marginalised. Fragmentation and overlap of responsibilities among decisionmakers make it difficult for citizens to enforce their rights, the lack of enforcement mechanisms enables service providers to evade their responsibilities, the poor pay high prices for unclean water from private vendors, people’s behaviour as part of their socio-cultural context can prevent the realisation of the right, women are discriminated against, and community participation in decisionmaking often remains inefficient. Also, governments often lack sufficient institutional and financial capacity to implement the right.
Solutions, in brief, include enforcement mechanisms for service providers, including controlling prices by private water vendors, simplifying access to information from governments, and recognising the right to information and participation for a meaningful communication between stakeholders. NGOs in turn, should avoid unhealthy competition in representing communities. For successful programs, strategic communication is needed to change people’s behaviour. Privatisation of water services does not have to be ruled out, if a pro-poor focus is possible on a competitive market. Sanitation requires further definition in terms of human rights.

Obligations for the international community include providing sufficient aid and assuring that projects do not violate the right to water. Donors should also share lessons learned when implementing the right, support countries to identify national needs, support civil society in claiming their rights, and identify opportunities to integrate access to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water and basic sanitation into national development agendas.

Seminar Programme          13:30-17:00, Room T6

Chairs:
Andre Dzikus, Chief, Water and Sanitation Section, UN-HABITAT
Emilie Filmer-Wilson, Human Rights Specialist, UNDP Oslo Governance Centre

Presentation from the event

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