Skip to main content
Disciplines
Automotive Business IT + Informatics Construction + Real Estate Electrical Engineering + Electronics Energy + Sustainability Insurance + Risk Finance + Banking Management + Leadership Marketing + Sales Mechanical Engineering + Materials
Events
DE
EN
Books
Journals
Topic Page
Marketing
Start single access now
Access for companies
EXTENDED SEARCH
Log in
Top

2016 | Book

Introduction Read chapter Read first chapter

The Human Right to Water

From Concept to Reality

Editor: Nandita Singh

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Login to get access
insite
SEARCH

About this book

The discourse on the human right to water presents deliberations on the concept, content and rationale for the right, with little attention to the practical question of translating the right into reality. This book aims to fill this void by focusing on ‘realization’ of the right by its holders, examining how effective the mechanisms are for ‘implementing’ the right in enabling its universal realization. In a quest to answer this question, the book draws a conceptual differentiation between ‘implementation’ and ‘realization’ of the right, arguing that unlike implementation - which is an objective process of creation and implementation of measures such as legal frameworks, institutional structures or policy and action guidelines, realization of the right is a subjective process that extends much beyond. It takes shape within specific contextual settings which may include varied situations, yet remains neglected in the related academic and action forums. This book attempts to address this void by discussing some of the most significant contexts and the underlying problems and concerns that strongly influence realization of the human right to water. It contends that if the right is to be truly realized, these different contexts - which can be further classified as 'objective' and 'subjective' - must be understood, analysed and appropriately addressed before framing and implementing relevant action. The book further situates the human right to water discourse in a broader interdisciplinary perspective, expanding its scope beyond the narrower legal dimensions, linking it to the wider field of water resources management/governance. Through the novel ideas it proposes, the book makes an innovative and unique contribution in the field of human right to water which is of great scientific value.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Introduction
Abstract
This chapter introduces the reader to the purpose and contents of the book. Beginning with a brief outline of history and concept of the human right to water, it argues that the current scenario indicates that measures for implementation of the right are not always able to deliver the goods as planned. Therefore, the central question is identified as: How to enable translation of the human right to water from concept to reality? The central contention in the chapter and hence the book is that human right to water questions cannot be addressed through mere legal formulations. Instead, if the interest lies in enabling people to realize their right, then the need is to look beyond law, linking it to the interdisciplinary fields of water resources management and water governance. Toward this end, concepts of “realization” and “implementation” of the right are differentiated, and the relevance of the “context” of action is explained. The chapter concludes with a description of the aim and contents of the book.
Nandita Singh
Chapter 2. Realizing the Human Right to Water in Local Communities: An Actor-Oriented Analysis
Abstract
The human right to water is ultimately to be enjoyed by people as right-holders – men, women, and children – who live in local communities. Action for implementing the right for the people is undertaken by the agencies as duty-bearers. However, neither do the duty-bearers implement the actions in an impersonal and neutral manner, nor do the right-holders passively accept these actions and their outcomes as they come. The actors on both sides are influenced by factors located within their local contexts, the interactions of which at the interface lead to dynamic results. This chapter aims to present these realities at the lowest level of action as a practical framework of norm-triads which can be used to assess the situation in any community-level context and design improvements to promote realization of the right.
Nandita Singh
Chapter 3. Monitoring and Evaluation of Rural Water Supply in Uganda: Implications for Achieving the Human Right to Water
Abstract
Water supply programmes and projects are the ultimate water delivery interventions that can secure the human right to water for people. However, installed infrastructures undergo wear and tear, growing populations outnumber the available water points, and new kinds of water challenges, such as that of water availability or quality, can emerge over time. For ensuring that the installed water infrastructures sustainably supply water to communities, regular monitoring and evaluation is required, an aspect often the most neglected in water supply programmes. Using the example of rural water supply programmes in Uganda where monitoring and evaluation has been strengthened in recent years, this chapter aims to examine the various challenges still remaining, considering their implications for realising the human right to water.
Andrew Quin, Berit Balfors, Marianne Kjellén
Chapter 4. Arsenic in Drinking Water: An Emerging Human Right Challenge in India
Abstract
Arsenic is a dangerous contaminant that occurs naturally in the groundwater in many parts of the world, including India. The presence of this contaminant threatens enjoyment of the human right to water, negatively impacting upon people’s health, economy and social wellbeing. This in turn thwarts people’s enjoyment of the rights to health, education and development. This chapter presents the scenario of the impact of arsenic in groundwater in the Indian state of Bihar, elaborating on the health implications through detailed case studies. It further critically evaluates the measures adopted for arsenic mitigation in the state, finally suggesting that the need is to find sustainable solutions for securing safe drinking water for the people. This alone can enable enjoyment of the human right to water and other related rights in arsenic-affected areas in India and elsewhere in the world.
Arun Kumar, Ashok Ghosh, Nandita Singh
Chapter 5. Climate Change and Human Right to Water: Problems and Prospects
Abstract
The impact of climate change on water is imminent which in turn holds serious implications for enjoyment of the human right to water. Both quantity and quality of water are foreseen to get affected through impacts on water. This chapter aims to explore, first, the challenges posed by climate change impacts on water to the exercise of human right to water and, second, the prospects for effectively addressing these challenges so that the right can be universally realized. Among the prospects, on the basis of empirical evidence from India, it argues that local communities possess traditional knowledge and practices which enable resilience to climatic impacts on water. The chapter contends that this body of knowledge and practices regarding water can serve as an effective blueprint for adaptation to climate change.
Nandita Singh
Chapter 6. Policy Paradoxes and Women’s Right to Water in Mining Areas of Ghana
Abstract
The human right to water of women has been considered as being of special importance. Not only do women need water for themselves but as domestic water managers also stand responsible for fulfilling the water-related needs of other household members. But are women able to enjoy their right in all circumstances? How does the industrial activity of mining undermine their right? This chapter explores the situation in Ghana, one of the leading gold-mining countries in Africa, attempting to analyze the contradictions between the policies supporting mining on the one hand and that on community-based rural water supply on the other. Using empirical evidence from local mining communities in Ghana, it examines how close are these two policy frameworks in terms of principles, approach, institutions and processes, aiming to identify the gaps and propose solutions so that Ghanaian women’s right to water can be secured.
Nandita Singh, Berit Balfors, John E. Koku
Chapter 7. Human Right to Water in a Bottled Water Regime
Abstract
The bottled water industry is a strong manifestation of privatization of water as a resource, which is often promoted by protagonists as a means to improve “accessibility” to “safe” water for all at “affordable” prices. However, for antagonists, the sole aim of the bottled water industry is to earn profit out of a generally minimally priced resource, even at the cost of human health and well-being. This chapter aims to examine the implications of bottled water for realization of the human right to water, arguing that it fails to meet most of the criteria for enjoying the right, considering the circumstances of the consumers of bottled water as well as the residents of the areas from where bottled water is mined.
Ravi Shankar Shukla, Nandita Singh
Chapter 8. Groundwater Management and the Human Right to Water in India: The Need for a Decentralised Approach
Abstract
This chapter explores the case of bottled water industry in India where over-exploitation of groundwater by industrial giants in the sector leaves the right-holders unprotected, thwarting their enjoyment of the right to water. Soft drink manufacturing companies and bottled water companies have been progressively establishing manufacturing units all over the country, exploiting, primarily, groundwater for their production needs. Water mining practised by these companies affects the communities dependent upon these resources, but the regulatory atmosphere of groundwater is weak and allows no voice to the dependents of a resource on water use. Decisions regarding groundwater management and exploitation are taken far away from these communities, and institutional structures have not created the spaces for the representation of their interests. In this context, the chapter explores the legal possibility for an alternate approach, namely, decentralised groundwater management, one that is based on the local self-government institutions.
Mahesh Menon
Chapter 9. Achieving Clean Water to All Is a Question of Politics
Abstract
This chapter aims to introduce the discussion on the emergence of privatization in the water sector and subsequent weakening of the state institution, both developments being unsuitable from human rights perspective. Through illustrative examples, it is contended that the current water crisis is not a result of a physical water shortage but wrong political decisions. It further argues that privatization of water utilities is also a political decision which has been vehemently opposed in recent times with the result that public sector is being increasingly reinstated in the process of operation and management of water utilities.
Jan-Erik Gustafsson
Chapter 10. Human Right to Water Obligations, Corporate Entities, and Accountability Mechanisms
Abstract
Privatization can be placed in the wider context of globalization, a phenomenon which relates to the increased worldwide movement of finance and investment capital, goods, services, people, and information. Water is an important component that comes into the picture, both directly as through TNC-led water services, and indirectly, such as through virtual water trade. According to the opponents of globalization, this process has increased the power of transnational corporations (TNCs), international financial institutions (IFIs), the World Trade Organization, and some countries with strong economies, but the developing states have largely suffered, experiencing difficulty in asserting the full realization of the economic, social, and cultural (ESC) rights, wherein the human right (HR) to water is primarily seen to belong. The existing human rights legal framework is ill-equipped to deal with these actors. This chapter explores a way in which these actors may be held accountable for their impacts under the existing international human rights law (IHRL).
Amrita Paul
Chapter 11. A Rights-based Policy Framework for Governing Municipal Water Services
Abstract
Water privatization programs in a number of developing countries have failed to deliver the goods, while a good number of traditional and modern water management practices and experiences offer lessons toward reclaiming public water services. On this basis, this chapter argues that certain key principles are necessary in order to develop a policy framework for improving municipal water services that is essentially rights based. According to these principles, municipal water services should be provided by an autonomous state authority with some degree of decentralization that base its strategy on the recognition of the rights of citizens to municipal water services and the political commitment to fulfill this right. Additionally, water services should be integrated and managed holistically, based on nonprofit cost recovery principles, and should be open to public participation. These principles are tested and clarified through a study of stakeholder perspectives in Accra, Ghana, leading to a rights-based policy framework for improving municipal water services.
Lina Suleiman
Chapter 12. Human Right to Water in Transboundary Water Regimes
Abstract
Transboundary watercourses present a context which can have an impact upon the human right to water of over 40 % of the world’s population. Transboundary water resources are increasingly coming under stress in terms of both quantity and quality, due to increasing populations and unsustainable and inequitable uses. Climate change is expected to further add to the pressures on transboundary waters. Since the human right to water is based on the consumptive use of water, in a competitive transboundary water regime, fulfilment of the right can thus meet much challenge. This chapter attempts to explore the nuances underlying this increasingly important context, through a focus on transboundary watercourses in three different regions, namely, the Juba-Shabelle in the Horn of Africa, Jordan River basin in the Middle East and Ganges River basin in South Asia. It attempts to recommend solutions on how the human right to water can be facilitated in transboundary water regimes.
Nandita Singh
Chapter 13. Translating the Human Right to Water into Reality: Concluding Remarks
Abstract
This chapter attempts to integrate the analytical threads presented in the various chapters of the book. The different contexts presented in the book are first analyzed under a number of overarching themes. These context-based themes are the following: water resources, policy environment, legal landscape, program and project interventions, and institutional setting. On the basis of the analysis, a conceptual framework is developed to help understand the process of realization of human right to water. According to this framework, the process of implementation of the right is seen as linked to the context in which it unfolds, the latter being further differentiated into “objective” and “subjective” contexts. Finally, a way forward for translating the human right to water from concept to reality is defined, aiming toward transforming the status of all right holders from “non-realizers” to “full realizers” of the human right to water.
Nandita Singh
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
The Human Right to Water
Editor
Nandita Singh
Copyright Year
2016
Electronic ISBN
978-3-319-40286-4
Print ISBN
978-3-319-40285-7
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40286-4