ABSTRACT
Since their explicit recognition in 2010, the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation have been showing their potential in mobilising a progressive shift away from the traditional approaches applied to the provision of water and sanitation. The legal nature of these rights, the normative content that defines them, and broad human rights principles constitute a powerful framework creating the space for the needs of the marginalised people and those living in vulnerable situations to be prioritised. The human rights framework challenges the conventional rationale applied to concepts such as access, affordability and sustainability, and has led to an understanding that water and sanitation services can only be deemed accessible if they are both affordable and reliable – every day and into the future. Human rights principles of affordability and sustainability must accompany economic concepts such as ‘cost recovery’. This chapter outlines the priorities, opportunities and challenges of implementing these rights, highlighting also how they align with the SDG agenda. It also considers the specific ways in which water and sanitation policies and plans integrate human rights; international cooperation obligations embody human rights principles in associated policies and interventions; and economic mechanisms ensure affordable access. Policies implemented in a number of countries over the last few decades have not necessarily resulted in narrowing the gaps between the most and least privileged population groups. We argue that service provision and monitoring should not only focus on the most commonly identified disadvantaged groups, but also prioritise other groups that tend to be especially ignored, such as prisoners, people living in detention centres and refugee camps, refugees in provisional settings, people living in ‘irregular’ settlements and the homeless, among others.
