• 3.1 - The Human Right to Water
• 3.2 - Public and Participatory Water System

3.1 - The Human Right to Water

At present, water is only tacitly accepted as a human right by globally binding legal instruments. This right can be derived from a number of conventions, declarations and global instruments of international law, both binding and not binding, such as the UN Charter, the Geneva Convention, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Human Rights Covenants of 1966. They do not explicitly refer to water, but in order to achieve some of their goals regarding to human rights, water is a pre-requisite in sufficient quality and quantity.

For instance, article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “(e)veryone has the right to a standard of life adequate to for the health and well being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services”. Although the list quoted does not mention water, it is not an all-inclusive list, judging by the wording employed (“including”). Therefore, there is ground to affirm that although water is not mentioned explicitly that it is tacitly derived from the spirit of the article, for the realization of each and all of those above mentioned rights require sufficient water both in quality and quantity.

The only two human rights treaties to refer explicitly to water as a human right are the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women, as well as the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The former recognizes the right to water as a fundamental pre-requisite for having adequate living conditions and the latter recognizes the right of children to clean drinking-water. A positive step in the direction of acknowledging water as a human right is stated in the General Comment adopted by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on the right to water - which refers to article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights - states that: “The human right to drinking water is fundamental for life and health. Sufficient and safe drinking water is a precondition for the realization of all human rights.”

Taking a step further and stating clearly that water is a fundamental human right will put pressure to governments in order to take every step necessary to make sure that its citizens are granted this right according to their basic requirements Ðand make sure that they do not take steps that will prevent its citizens from enjoying this right. It will mean that governments will have to design sound policies to manage it and accept public surveillance around this service; and it means that water is no commodity and therefore should not be managed with an eye to profiteering. But inasmuch as there is a need to acknowledge a right to water we are certain that this right should not be defined in such broad and ambiguous terms as to be rendered meaningless.

3.2 - Public and Participatory Water system

Given the relative results of public and private services of water, we believe that it is necessary that water remains in public hands. Not only is absolutely necessary for life to exist; not only does it not respond to market laws as it has no equivalent replacement; privatisation experiments have failed systematically over the last two decades.

We believe that stating that water should be left in public hands is not good enough: we need to look for mechanisms that increase people's participation in water management. This we believe is the main way to make sure that the water service responds to the best interests of local population. Experiences as such have been attempted in different parts of the world, with varying degrees of success. The most successful experiences have taken place in Latin America, particularly in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and in Argentina. The key to success is real participation in the decision making process. Usual problems in water delivery are corrupt and clientelistic practices. The more democracy and the more participation of civil society in public water management, the better result achieved.