The right to water

Credit: WaterAid / Jon Spaull

Water as a human right was initially asserted by the United Nations in 2002 in their General Comment No.15. This clarified the obligation for governments to extend access to sufficient, affordable, accessible and safe water supplies and to safe sanitation services as their resources allow.

This means that while governments are not required to secure immediate access to water for all their population, they are required to progressively realise or seek to improve access year on year.

In July 2010 the United National General Assembly formally recognised the right to water and sanitation and acknowledged that clean drinking water and sanitation are integral to the realisation of all human rights. On 30 September 2010 the Human Rights Council, responsible for mainstreaming human rights within the UN system, adopted by consensus a resolution affirming that water and sanitation are human rights.

WaterAid considers that a rights-based approach is critical to ensuring global access to water and sanitation and we are working to help the poorest people achieve that right in the following ways:

• Helping partner organisations in Africa and Asia to understand and promote the right to water to lobby their governments to allocate further resources to these basic services
• Working with a range of other rights and development organisations to develop learning and understanding about the right to water

WaterAid, in conjunction with the Fresh Water Action Network (FAN), Rights and Humanity and WASH United have developed an information website on the human rights to water and sanitation, www.righttowater.info.

The site aims to:

• Provide information on relevant policy commitments and explain the concepts and theories of human rights law with respect to the right to water
• Promote the use of the right to water and rights based approaches as tools for community empowerment, advocacy and legal redress

Read our publications on the right to water