• The right to water contains freedoms. These freedoms include protection against arbitrary and illegal disconnections; prohibition of unlawful pollution of water resources; non-discrimination in access to safe drinking water and sanitation, notably on the basis of land or housing status; non-interference with access to existing water supplies, especially to traditional water sources; and ensuring that personal security is not threatened when accessing water or sanitation outside the home.
• The right to water contains entitlements. These entitlements include access to a minimum amount of safe drinking water to sustain life and health; access to safe drinking water and sanitation in detention;
and participation in water- and sanitation-related decision-making at the national and community levels.
In its general comment No. 15, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights clarified the scope and content of the right to water by explaining what is meant by sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses.
• The water supply for each person must be sufficient and continu-ous to cover personal and domestic uses , which comprise water for drinking, washing clothes, food preparation and personal and house-hold hygiene. Other domestic water uses, such as water for swimming pools or gardening, do not fall within the scope of the right to water.
HIV/AIDS and specific water needs
Living with HIV/AIDS requires washing frequently and paying close attention to personal hygiene […]. Wounds and lesions need cleaning, and clothes and bedding must be washed often. Fever, accompanied by sweating, is common and so many may drink more water […]. Clean, well-aired houses are important if tuberculosis—the most common opportunistic infection—
is to be avoided. All these things require extra water, yet this is something that is not always readily available.
Source: WaterAid Ethiopia and Progynist, “Making the links: Mapping the relationship between water, hygiene and sanitation and HIV/AIDS—a joint think piece” (2004). Available from www.wateraid.org.
The right to water therefore covers access to water to sustain life and health and to meet basic needs and does not entitle individuals to an unlimited amount of water. According to WHO, between 50 and 100 litres of water per person per day are needed to ensure that most basic needs are met and few health concerns arise. Access to 20-25 litres per person per day represents a minimum, but this amount raises health concerns because it is insufficient to meet basic hygiene and consumption requirements.9 These amounts are indicative as they might depend on a particular context and might differ for some groups depending on their health status, work, climate conditions or other factors. Breastfeeding mothers, pregnant women or persons living with HIV/AIDS would need more than 50-100 litres of water per day.
At any one time, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from waterborne diseases.
Source: www.un.org/waterforlifedecade.
• Water for personal and domestic uses must be safe and accept-able. In accordance with general comment No. 15, it must be free from microbes and parasites, chemical substances and radiological hazards that constitute a threat to a person’s health. Water must also be of an acceptable colour, odour and taste to ensure that individuals will not resort to polluted alternatives that may look more attractive. These requirements apply to all sources of water provision, including piped water, tankers, vendor-provided water and protected wells.
Drinking-water safety is usually defined through national and/or local standards for drinking-water quality. The WHO Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality provide a basis for the development of national stan-dards, which, if properly implemented, will ensure the safety of drinking water.10
About 90 per cent of sewage and 70 per cent of industrial waste in developing countries are discharged into watercourses without treatment, often polluting the usable water supply.
Source: www.un.org/waterforlifedecade.
The absence of adequate sanitation systems in many parts of the world has led to widespread pollution of water sources that communities rely upon for survival. In its general comment No. 15, the Committee underlined that ensuring access to adequate sanitation is one of the principal mechanisms for protecting the quality of drinking-water supplies and resources.
• Water and sanitation facilities must be physically accessible and within safe reach for all sections of the population, taking into account the needs of particular groups, including persons with disabilities, women, children and the elderly.
Our main problems in rural communities are the following: walking long distances about 2 to 3 kilometres daily to a public tap; carrying heavy
containers on our heads 20 to 25 litres per trip; long queues at the point of taps; should there be contamination at this common point the whole village is at risk.
Source: Woman from South Africa, “Water Voice” project, 2003.
While the right to water does not imply that everyone should have access to water and sanitation at home, it requires such facilities to be in close proximity to, or at a reasonable distance from, each house.
Water and sanitation should also be provided in schools and hospitals, at the workplace, in detention centres, as well as in camps for refugees and IDPs.
The average distance that women in Africa and Asia walk to collect water is 6 kilometres.
As the amount of water accessed every day is largely determined by the distance to the water source and the collection time, a reasonable distance is one that allows everyone to collect sufficient water to cover personal domestic uses. According to WHO, in order to have a basic access to 20 litres per day, the water source has to be within 1,000 metres of the home and collection time should not exceed 30 minutes.
When water is piped into the home, access is optimal and at least 100 litres per person per day is likely to be ensured.11 In this respect, UNDP confirms in its Human Development Report 2006 that having a regular supply of clean water piped to the household is the optimal type of provision for human development. Access to a regular supply of water within the home also eliminates the need for women and children to spend time and physically exert themselves to collect water from distant sources.
• Water services must be affordable to all. No individual or group should be denied access to safe drinking water because they cannot afford to pay.
Lack of affordable water in Haiti
In Port-de-Paix, Haiti, respondents to a household survey reported that, when water is too expensive, they go to the highly contaminated and
garbage-filled rivers to meet their household water needs (31.1 per cent).
In addition, some households forgo bathing (22.2 per cent) or cooking (26.7 per cent).
Source: Center for Human Rights and Global Justice and others, Wòch nan Soley: The Denial of the Right to Water in Haiti. Available from www.chrgj.
org/projects/docs/wochnansoley.pdf (accessed 28 April 2010).
Accordingly, all direct and indirect costs related to water and sanitation should not prevent anyone from accessing these services and should not compromise their ability to enjoy other human rights, such as the rights to food, education, adequate housing or health. The affordability requirement also underlines that cost recovery should not become a barrier to access to safe drinking water and sanitation, notably by the poor. For instance, UNDP suggests 3 per cent of household income as a benchmark.
The relationship between access to safe drinking water and cost recovery in international declarations
The international community has underlined that access to water for personal and domestic uses should not be threatened by cost recovery.
The Plan of Implementation of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development underlines that cost-recovery objectives should not become a barrier to access to safe drinking water by poor people. Agenda 21 states that, beyond the provision of safe drinking water for the satisfaction of basic needs, water users should be charged appropriately.
Overall, poorer households should not be disproportionately burdened with water and sanitation expenses.