Right to water and sanitation: going beyond the MDG targets

Updated - Thursday 04 February 2010

The human right to water and sanitation goes beyond the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets and aims for universal coverage, focusing on the most neglected people. UN Independent Expert Catarina de Albuquerque says that the right is not only about sustainable access, but covers affordability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality of sufficient water for basic personal and domestic use. While 20 litres of safe drinking water is considered the basic minimum for survival, 50-100 litres is needed to ensure full realisation of the right.

Catarina de Albuquerque started a three-year assignment in November 2008 as Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation. Besides providing policy advice to the UN, she is also preparing a compendium of water and sanitation best practices.

What rights exist?

The right to water is widely acknowledged already to exist, since without it many explicit human rights cannot be achieved. In 2002, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (UNCESCR) issued General Comment No. 15, stating: “The human right to water is indispensable for leading a life in human dignity. It is a prerequisite for the realization of other human rights.”

In 2007, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) concluded that the right to water was implicit in the rights to life and health, and explicit in several UN treaties. The UNHCHR concluded that there is a human right to equal and non-discriminatory access to sufficient safe drinking water for personal and domestic uses to sustain life and health.

However, The Netherlands, together with Germany, Spain and Switzerland are actively advocating for formal international recognition of the right to water and sanitation. They have joined a global movement started by NGOs like WaterAid, COHRE and Green Cross International.

The UN Human Rights Council is considering a proposal to incorporate the right to sanitation as an explicit component of the right to an adequate standard of living.

What difference does it make?

Ms Albuquerque spoke to water sector and human rights experts at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 4 November 2009 in The Hague, and confessed that many sector specialists ask her, “What difference can human rights make?”. She tells them that they are not a panacea and that implementation is the crux. However, they do establish a legal framework, defining rights and obligations. They promote pro-poor and non-discriminatory service provision. They turn individuals from passive recipients of services into active agents of change. Access to water and sanitation is no longer a matter of charity or welfare, but a legal entitlement.

“Part of my job is being frustrated”

Catarina de Albuquerque has been to Egypt, Costa Rica and Bangladesh to see what the right to water and sanitation means in practice. Visits invariably raise high expectations. But Ms Albuquerque has neither the time nor resources – she only has one assistant - to provide follow-up. “Part of my job is being frustrated”, she says and she needs “more teeth” and partners to follow-up recommendations and to hold governments accountable. She urges civil society to monitor compliance.

UN status gives Ms Albuquerque access to high-level government officials and she is not afraid to point to abuses as well as acknowledging achievements. At a press conference in Bangladesh, she praised the country for innovation in sanitation and for its community-led approach. However, she also drew attention to discrimination against sweepers or scavengers who are denied education and have inadequate access to water and sanitation in their own homes, and to the large number of people suffering as a result of arsenic contaminated drinking water.

The role of the state

Is the state obliged to provide services directly and should water and sanitation be free? No, says Ms Albuquerque, on both counts. The state’s primary obligation is to provide oversight and regulation. Only in the case of extreme poverty or natural disaster should the state step in. States must ensure that services are affordable, rather than free. Those who can, must contribute financially or in kind. Universal coverage does not have to be realised immediately, but every state must demonstrate it is taking progressive steps towards that goal to the maximum of its available resources.

Focus on sanitation, privatisation and climate change

Each year of her assignment Ms Albuquerque focuses on a specific issue. In 2009 this was sanitation; for 2010 the chosen topic is privatisation. In addition, a position paper on climate change has been written. Following an expert and public consultation, Ms Albuquerque sent a recommendation to the UN Human Rights Council to incorporate the right to sanitation as an explicit component of the right to an adequate standard of living.

A public consultation on the issue of human rights obligations in the context of private sector participation was held in Geneva on 27 January 2010. Stakeholders who were not able to attend the consultation, including local authorities, national human rights institutions, civil society organizations and academic institutions, are invited to submit their contributions to iewater@ohchr.org by 26 March 2010.

More information:

Catarina de Albuquerque
Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation
ESCR Section, Special Procedures Division, UNOG-OHCHR
Palais des Nations, CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Fax: +41 22 917 90 06, e-mail
Web site

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