Chapter 6 - Ten Building Blocks for a Sustainable Human Right to Water. An Integrated Method to Assess Vulnerable Groups’ Sustainable Access to Water for Domestic Purposes

Summary

‘The lesson to be learnt is that access to water depends on a range of economic, political, technical, cultural, financial, organisational, social and managerial issues. Because of the multi-faceted nature of the problem a holistic view on water service provision is imperative.’

INTRODUCTION

In the quest to realise the human right to water for all, states are experiencing many challenges, especially concerning the fulfilment of their obligations towards unserved and underserved populations. With natural resources becoming more and more scarce, states with limited capacities are increasingly required to review their overall water management in relation to providing access to water for domestic purposes. The human right to water can play a crucial role in assisting the development of a contextspecific policy and regulations. Placing the human right to water within a specific national context will put it in a particular physical context regarding water resources. This right, however, is still developing and its position within the overall system of water management is unclear. This book therefore provides a method by which the human right to water can be observed within the bigger picture of sustainable water management. As such this chapter answers the question: How can a sustainable human right to water be assessed within the local context?

This chapter presents an assessment method in which the rights-based approach to access to water and relevant environmental principles have been integrated with the aim of facilitating the sustainable enjoyment of the right to water by vulnerable groups. This assessment method will be referred to as the ‘Ten building blocks for a sustainable human right to water’ and was built out of a multi-disciplinary assessment method for water governance developed by Van Rijswick, Edelenbos, Hellegers, Kok, and Kuks (2014). The method as developed by Van Rijswick et Al. is a three-step multidisciplinary method to assess how states tackle different water issues such as water shortage, water quality and flood risks.

This method can be used to pose specific questions in relation to water management. It has therefore been adjusted in order to assess relevant aspects for the implementation of a sustainable human right to water for vulnerable groups and thereby extends the applicability of this approach.