Safe water: an enquiry into water entitlements and human rights

Abstract

Privatisation of water delivery is a human rights issue in two distinct ways. Firstly, it implies an institutional change that will tend to impinge on existing access to water. While basic water entitlements are supposed to be protected by human rights law, this is likely to influence implementation. Secondly, access to safe water is an entitlement, which, although obviously linked to basic human dignity, is still far from being realized for everyone. The point here is that privatization tends to affect human rights as a transformational mission, too. Hence, not surprisingly, water issues receive a great deal of attention in human rights debate. Indicative in this respect are two recent articles in subsequent issues of the Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, one on access to water as a human right and the other on that right in the light of “the human rights-based approach to development”.