Water Unites

On an international level, this approach was recognized by the Dublin Principles of 1992. They
state that:
• Fresh water is a finite and vulnerable resource, essential to sustain life, development and
the environment;
• Water development and management should be based on a participatory approach, involving
users, planners and policymakers at all levels;
• Women play a central part in the provision, management and safeguarding of water;
• Water has an economic value in all its competing uses and should be recognised as an economic
good. 4
These principles evolved as one of the major reference points in the international discourse on
water management. Nevertheless, it is still contested by many and is the subject of a continuing
debate among officials, academics, practitioners, civil society activists and private businesses.
During the last decades, various UN bodies and conferences have started to address
water and sanitation issues in a human rights context. This is driven by the fact that still today,
an estimated 884 million people lack access to safe drinking water and more than 2.6 billion
people do not have access to basic sanitation. This is not only a serious social and health issue.
Access to water is a fundamental precondition for the enjoyment of human rights like the rights
to life, adequate housing, education, food, health, work and cultural life. Therefore, activists
have started to argue that water is more than just a human need, that it is a human right. In such
a reading, the access to safe drinking water should not depend on affordability; its provision to
the poor is no longer perceived as charity, but as a legal entitlement.
In 2008, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva adopted on the initiative of Germany
and Spain a resolution on human rights and access to safe drinking water and sanitation
and appointed an independent expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to
access to safe drinking water and sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque (renamed the special
rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation in March 2011). Another
breakthrough was achieved on July 28, 2010, when the UN General Assembly adopted a nonbinding
resolution on the human right to access to clean water and sanitation. The resolution
calls on states and international organizations to provide financial resources, build capacity
and transfer technology to developing countries to help them provide safe, clean, accessible
and affordable drinking water and sanitation to all. However, the states were unable to achieve
a consensus on the text, and 41 countries abstained from the vote. In March 2011, the UN
Human Rights Council also adopted a resolution on the right to safe drinking water and sanitation.
The notion that there is a human right to water does not imply that water in any amount
has to be free and that no cost-recovery considerations apply. Rather, it means that governments
are responsible for ensuring sufficient water for basic health and safety needs (i.e. for drinking,
personal sanitation, washing of clothes, food preparation and personal and household hygiene)
in a way that is affordable and available to all. But it does not prescribe whether water services
should be delivered by public or private providers and how access is guaranteed. 5
4 http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/hwrp/documents/english/icwedece.html
5 OHCHR 2011.
Water management in Central Asia – the legacies of the past
17