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Copyright of Tecnología y Ciencias del Agua is the property of Instituto Mexicano de Tecnologia del Agua (IMTA) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Water & Landscape (WAL) / Agua & Territorio (AYT) is the property of Editorial de la Universidad de Jaen and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this review, we use legal scholarship to explore the way that the law constructs and maintains discourses on both water rights and water relationality. Water rights and water relationality can be constructed as opposite ends of a spectrum of legal modalities for defining and regulating the human/water relationship. However, when considered through the lens of law, rights and relationality can also be seen as intertwined. The legal instruments that create individual rights to take and use water situate those rights within frameworks that regulate the relationship between humans (both collectively and individually) and between humans and the water ecosystem. We begin with an identification and exploration of three water rights discourses in legal scholarship: water as a private right (to take and use), the human right to water, and the rights of rivers. We then consider emerging legal scholarship on the more complex reality of water relationality, focusing on the role of law in water commoning, Indigenous laws, and environmental restorative justice. In doing so, we identify points of intersection between these discourses as mediated through law. We also identify critiques of both water rights and water relationality discourses in law and the ways in which they shape our ability to respond to water crises.

In this review, we use legal scholarship to explore the way that the law constructs and maintains discourses on both water rights and water relationality. Water rights and water relationality can be constructed as opposite ends of a spectrum of legal modalities for defining and regulating the human/water relationship. However, when considered through the lens of law, rights and relationality can also be seen as intertwined. The legal instruments that create individual rights to take and use water situate those rights within frameworks that regulate the relationship between humans (both collectively and individually) and between humans and the water ecosystem. We begin with an identification and exploration of three water rights discourses in legal scholarship: water as a private right (to take and use), the human right to water, and the rights of rivers. We then consider emerging legal scholarship on the more complex reality of water relationality, focusing on the role of law in water commoning, Indigenous laws, and environmental restorative justice. In doing so, we identify points of intersection between these discourses as mediated through law. We also identify critiques of both water rights and water relationality discourses in law and the ways in which they shape our ability to respond to water crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Tecnología y Ciencias del Agua is the property of Instituto Mexicano de Tecnologia del Agua (IMTA) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG6) is grounded in human rights and derives from international policies refined over decades. We argue that much of this agenda setting and monitoring reflects or gives way to neo-colonialism and neo-liberalism. We implement an online version of the Nominal Group Technique to explore its efficacy for more equitable global agenda setting. We apply the technique to a group of 19 graduate WaSH students – from diverse professional backgrounds and originating from and having worked in all global regions – to gain their insights on future WaSH issues to be included in global targets. This was preceded by preparatory exercises on WaSH progress and influential contextual factors. We thus demonstrate a novel and systematic application of the NGT and discuss its potential to be used in challenging neo-colonial and neo-liberal agenda setting. The results also provide an early assessment of future priorities that could inform post-SDG target setting including: inclusivity among populations and settings, hygiene, menstrual health, sustainability, circular economy, climate resilience, preventing infectious disease transmission, and universal ‘safely managed services’. These are compared with themes highlighted in Joint Monitoring Programme reports, SDG6 indicators and General Comment 15: The Human Right to Water. HIGHLIGHTS The use of an adapted virtual nominal group technique to reflect on priority WaSH issues post-2030.; The potential for a virtual NGT to challenge neo-colonial and neo-liberal agenda setting.; Novel priorities: sustainability, climate resilience, water conservation, circular economy of WaSH systems, broadening the scope of hygiene, menstrual health, inclusion of vulnerable groups, and preventing infectious disease transmission;

This paper reviews international and domestic normative and jurisprudential sources of the last twenty years on the Human Right to Water (HRW), focusing the study on Latin American countries that do not have this right expressly enshrined in their constitutional texts, especially Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. It analyzes the arguments used in its recognition, the elements of its structure, and the ways of addressing the problem of entitlement and enforceable duties. The conclusion shows a stage of jurisprudential progress in the first two countries (Colombia and Argentina), with a recognition of various contents of the DHA in accordance with international standards, while in the case of Brazil and Chile there is evidence, with nuances, of a limited recognition. In this regard, the internal normative structures differ in terms of the role of the State and individuals in water management, and the judicial tools for the protection of fundamental rights as a way of processing conflicts over access to water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The right to water expresses one of the basic rights enjoyed by the human beings, as it is called for by international conventions and the international community and countries seek to secure it and ensure its provision to individuals and impose it at the international and regional levels, as Arab countries are not immune from ensuring water security for their individuals, and for this reason, they had to unite their initiatives in light of the current challenges and work side by side to recognize this right through their accession to the 1992 Water Convention and work to adopt regional agreements that unify the congruence of views, In ensuring common Arab water security.

Copyright of Revista Digital de Derecho Administrativo is the property of Universidad Externado de Colombia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The subject of this paper is the international legal and political framework of the right to water and relevant regulations in the Republic of Serbia, and the focus is on the state's responsibility for water management in accordance with the realization of the common good. The starting point of the paper is the position that access to water is a human right and that water can be managed only by the state and exclusively in the general interest. The first part of the paper discusses the risks of marketization, privatization and commodification of water for the realization of the right to water and the protection of this vital natural and strategic resource. The second part summarizes the activities of the United Nations related to the recognition of the right to water as a basic human right and the obligations of states in this sense. The third part analyses the normative and strategic framework of the Republic of Serbia in this area from the perspective of the right to water and responsible state management. Deficiencies in terms of the compliance with international human rights standards and the risks that the current regulation can produce for the population, water resources and the state are pointed out. No effective instruments have been envisaged for the protection of water from pollution, nor against commodification and marketization, while the privatization of water and public companies in this area threatens the sovereignty of the state over its natural resources. The goal of the paper is to point out the importance of establishing national regulations that will ensure sovereign and responsible management of water resources and protection of the right to water.

Civil society has long demanded that human rights monitoring mechanisms be accessible not only for big international NGOs, but also for grassroots and domestic civil society organizations. Ensuring equal participation in these procedures has never been timelier as increasing socioeconomic inequalities widen the barriers for vulnerable populations to engage in transnational advocacy strategies. By using the right to water in the reviews that the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has conducted to Argentina, Ecuador, and Uruguay as case studies, this article examines how receptive the monitoring mechanism has been to the voices of—and concerns related to—the most vulnerable sectors of society. Through a multi-methods research approach, the study first traces matches in language between alternative reports and the Committee's lists of issues and concluding observations to identify which voices and claims the CESCR has effectively 'heard'. It further draws on semi-structured interviews involving civil society actors and former and current members of the Committee. While the findings suggest that efforts for assuring equal weight to all voices are taking place at the CESCR monitoring mechanism, they also unveil how the Committee has overlooked claims when raised by only one alternative report—which have voiced the challenges experienced by groups with intersectional identities. Hence, this article's contribution rests on the light it sheds on the opportunities and challenges that the Committee confronts to ensure equal participation and make the most vulnerable voices and concerns heard in its monitoring procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensuring the human right to water requires monitoring at national or subnational levels, but few comprehensive frameworks exist for industrialized contexts. This paper introduces a subnational-level framework – known as the California Human Right to Water Framework and Data Tool (CalHRTW) – developed by the authors at the California EPA's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. This paper has two objectives: (1) to present the theoretical foundations and methodology used to develop the first version of CalHRTW (CalHRTW 1.0) and (2) to showcase how results can be used. CalHRTW 1.0 measures three components of the human right to water: drinking water quality, accessibility and affordability for community water systems in California. Nine individual indicators grouped by component, and three indices that summarize component-level outcomes are used to quantify system-level results. CalHRTW allows users to: (1) summarize system-level conditions statewide and identify challenges, (2) explore social equity implications and (3) centralize information for planning. CalHRTW draws on approaches from existing international monitoring efforts and complements existing California efforts by being the first US effort to comprehensively and explicitly monitor the HRTW under one umbrella. This work offers other US states and countries a model to build monitoring efforts to realize the human right to water. HIGHLIGHTS CalHRTW is the first effort to comprehensively monitor the human right to water in California.; We develop a monitoring framework and tool track the human right to water in California.; Nine indicators and three component-level indices allow users to track water system-level conditions and screen for challenges, explore social equity implications and centralize information.; The approach and application offers a model for other subnational locales.;

Copyright of Human Review is the property of Eagora Science and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The objective of this reflection article with a qualitative approach, which is developed within the Constitutional Justice and Rights research project, is to reflect on the scope and impact that the commercialization of water could generate on Stock Markets such as Wall Street, a proposal that was news at the end of 2020. An inductive method was applied, which started from the question: Is it possible to market water, a human right, a non-renewable natural resource and good for public use in stock markets or does its nature of human right impose limitations? The hypothesis developed is, focusing on the analysis of the Colombian case, that it is not appropriate and it is contradictory to transform the access and disposal of water to a tradable commodity. After the documentary analysis of secondary sources, it is concluded that, despite the fact that at this moment the news about the commercialization of water seems “fiction”, it is necessary to anticipate scenarios that this type of business poses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article maps a meshwork of formal and informal elements of places called Disadvantaged Unincorporated Communities(DUCs)to understand the role of informality in producing unjust accessto safe drinking waterin California’s San Joaquin Valley. It examinesthe spatial,racial, and class-based dimensions ofinformality. The paper aimstoboth enrich theliteratureon informality studies and use the concept of informality to expand research on DUCs and water access. We use socio-spatial analyses of the relationships between informality and water justice to reach the following conclusions: DUCs face severe problems in access to safe drinking water; disparities in access have a spatial dimension; inequities in water access are racialised; the proximity of DUCs to safe drinking water offers good potential for improved water access; and the challenges of informality are targeted through water justice advocacy and public policy.

• Court intervention for human right to water of about two million slum dwellers. • Public Interest Litigation for human right to water led to mixed results in Mumbai. • Court order and municipal policy posed many barriers and risks for water access. • Court and municipal government engaged in appropriation of human rights to water. • Lack of accountability of executive agencies led to non-implement of court order. This paper elucidates different forms and modes by which the two State agencies in Mumbai, India—the High Court and the municipal government—appropriated the human rights to water of an estimated two million slum-dwellers in the city. While the order of the High Court made inadequate and narrow interpretations of human rights to water, the municipal policy and functionaries indulged in delayed, selective, cosmetic, distorted, or rhetorical acceptance of these rights. These interpretations and actions led to many limitations and risks for the realization of human rights to water for slum-dwellers including penal tariffs, sub-par infrastructure, and new barriers to water access. Yet, the court order also removed a stiff legal barrier and empowered slum dwellers by lending legitimacy to their claims to water access. This paper responds to concerns in the literature over the appropriation of human rights to water by capitalist States especially in the Global South and its adverse implications for the realization of these rights. It also substantiates previous researchers' claims that there is a potential for positive outcomes of struggles for these rights. Finally, I indicate that, while countering such institutional appropriation, struggles for human rights to water need to undertake political action to enforce these rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2013 the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) 'Right2Water' collected 1.9 million signatures across Europe against water privatization. It became the first ever successful ECI and has built a Europe-wide movement. Right2Water sought for Europe's legal enforcement of the Human Right to Water and Sanitation (HRWS) as a strategic political tool to challenge European Union market policies. The paper examines the ECI from a social movement perspective. Although the European Commission subscribed that 'water is a public good, not a commodity', its implementation is subject to continuing politics and socio-political struggle, with growing urgency in times of the Covid-19 pandemic crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The human right to water (HRTW) and sustainable development goals (SDG) emphasize that human well‐being depends not just on the quality and physical accessibility of drinking water, but also on its economic accessibility. Despite this recognition, governments and academics alike have been hard‐pressed to define and measure water affordability. In the US, affordability is no longer solely focused on utility cost‐recovery models but equitable water access for individuals and households. How should water affordability be measured to represent this new focus? This question motivates the critical review presented here. We propose that household‐centered affordability measures reflect the normative aims of internationally established frameworks such as the HRTW and the SDGs. Linking measurement to aims is essential to improve transparency and comparability across studies, and ultimately, to align measures with water access objectives. First, we characterize normative positions outlined in the HRTW and SDGs and identify defining features of water affordability. Second, we identify dominant definitions and measures of affordability, including novel approaches. Bringing the defining features of affordability to bear on existing measures enables us to identify several emergent debates in the literature where affordability measures could better incorporate the aspirations of the HRTW and SDGs. We conclude with recommendations on how to improve water affordability measurements, while recognizing the trade‐offs between ideal measures and practical implementation. This article is categorized under: Water and Life > Stresses and Pressures on EcosystemsHuman Water > Value of WaterHuman Water > Rights of Water [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a potential solution to water scarcity, the United Nations advocates for a human rights‐based (HRB) approach to water management, characterized by a focus on the provision of safe drinking water and sanitation, stakeholder participation, and the realization of water equity for traditionally marginalized communities. Although most states around the world suffer from some form of water scarcity or stress, not all governments have officially recognized the validity of an HRB approach to water management. India stands as an instructive case study in this regard. The Indian state suffers from physical and economic water scarcity across its urban and rural communities, but the Indian federal government has not yet explicitly recognized the human right to water as a legitimate policy approach. Interestingly, though, the right to water has been tacitly recognized within India's legal system; thus, it is worth examining whether a tacit recognition of an HRB approach to water management exists in other aspects of India's national policy. This article utilizes content analysis to explore that question by, first, identifying seven key concepts within an HRB water management approach and, second, tracing those concepts through the 1987, 2002, and 2012 iterations of India's National Water Policy. The results help to illustrate that India's National Water Policy is congruent with an HRB approach to water management, although challenges remain due to a lack of both accountability and clarification of responsibilities between the national and subsidiary governments within India. This article is categorized under:Human Water > Rights to WaterHuman Water > Water Governance [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG6), also known as the ‘water goal’, one finds various (implicit) references to the internationally recognized human right to water. The aim of this paper is to further explore those linkages. More specifically, the main research question is the following: in what way does SDG6 facilitate local level implementation of the international human right to water, and does SDG6 call for a more sustainable interpretation of that human right? First, a brief overview is provided of the drafting process of SDG6, which took place in the period from 2013 to 2015, with a focus on suggested insertions into that SDG, of references to the human right to water and to local implementation. Then, the actual text of SDG6, as finally adopted in 2015, is analyzed in more detail. SDG6 is subjected to a textual analysis, in which the language of SDG6 is compared with authoritative codifications of the human right to water in the sources of international law, primarily treaties. This is followed by a brief and preliminary analysis of the monitoring and implementation process of SDG6, which began after its adoption in 2015, and will continue until the SDGs reach their expiration date in 2030. The paper ends with a conclusion.

This Special Issue on Localising the Sustainable Human Right to Water begins with contributions focused on a global and more general perspective. These contributions provide a general introduction to the topic of the sustainable human right to water. It then shifts perspective to provide regional contributions, and finally zooms in to contributions focused on the implementation of this right at the national level.

There is a long-standing dispute between Iran and Afghanistan over the Helmand River. In recent years, between 2002 and 2013, the access to water of the population living in the river basin in Iran has been adversely affected. As the human right to water is recognized at the international level, this paper aims to study the national implementation of the human right to water in both countries. It analyzes Afghanistan’s and Iran’s legislation, regulation, adopted strategies and policies at the national level. It further assesses if there is an extraterritorial obligation for both countries to respect, protect, and fulfill the human right to water. Finally, it to proposes solutions that would contribute to the fulfillment of the human right to water.

This article sets the global scene for the regional and local levels elaborated upon by articles later in this special issue by addressing the following research question: What is the impact of a human right to water on the sustainable balance of water uses under the customary international water law principle of equitable and reasonable utilization as codified in the UN Watercourses Convention? In order to answer this question, first, both a human right to water and vital human needs are introduced. Second, the position of a human right to water under the UN Watercourses Convention is reviewed, focusing on vital human needs that require special regard in order to reach equitable and reasonable utilization of freshwater resources. Third, various water uses to be taken into account when aiming for a sustainable balance are considered. Finally, the shift in balance by the coming into existence of a human right to water is concluded upon: It is argued that the impact of the human right to water results in effective priority of water uses for vital human needs in the application of the principle of equitable and reasonable utilization of international watercourses, reinforcing the human right to water beyond borders in return. This article contributes to the legal discourse by linking the general principles of international water law to the human right to water, which are foremost dealt with separately in existing literature, and clarifies the position of this right in the balance of water uses in cases of transboundary water allocation.

This article seeks to assess the role of the human right to water in realising water rights in the scenario of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). In particular, it seeks to answer the question of the extent to which the human right to water protects Palestinians’ water rights in the OPT. In doing so, the article will start by analysing the human right to water and the related obligation it imposes on states in protecting water rights. In addition, the article will examine the applicability of the human right to water to the OPT and to what extent Israel is committed to realise it.

This article analyses Mexico’s 2012 constitutional guarantee of the human right to water and the new General Water Law that is required to implement it. Mexico has struggled to find consensus regarding a new law, but none has as yet been adopted. We examine three key questions regarding the 2012-2019 period: How is the human right to water defined in the Mexican context? What is the legal and institutional framework for implementing it? What are the opportunities and challenges involved in institutionalising it in light of the proposed water legislation? This research is based on a literature review, participation and observation at public forums, and in-depth interviews with key actors. Two principal legal proposals emerged in 2015, contrasting a technocratic approach with a socially inclusive one; neither was adopted but both remain relevant to the current discourse. The 2018 election re-energised social mobilisation around the right to water, and the government launched a new process for developing legal proposals. Using legal geography and political ecology as theoretical framings, we find that the new law creates opportunities for transforming access to water for marginalised communities, yet faces social, political and structural obstacles. Despite the challenges, the constitutional guarantee of the right to water is a positive foundation for democratising water governance in Mexico.

There is no life without water. However, today, over one billion poor people of the word lack access to safe drinking water and two and a half billion are without improved sanitation due to lack of water. Lack of safe drinking water and poor sanitation are claiming the lives of 3,900 children under the age of five everyday and more than two million people are dying every year because of water related diseases. Despite this alarming situation, a human right to water is not adequately developed. International laws have not fully incorporated or affirmed the principle of human right to water. This paper studies and assesses the potential of human right to water in providing water access to the poor. A human right to water consists of the right to have access to the amount of water that a human being needs in order live without any discrimination. A human right to water requires cautious management of water resources to provide water for everyone today and the future generations. At the current state of international law, the human right to water is an implicit component of recognized rights. This makes the enforcement of human right to water only possible indirectly through right to life, right to healthy environment and right to development. Lack of access to sufficient clean water by the poor is not only a result of water scarcity or of inadequate technological or financial resources, but also lack of political will and accountability of the national governments. Furthermore, the hesitance by the international community to recognize and enforce a human right to water. The legal recognition of human right to water will not immediately improve the lives of people. However, it will give these people a possibility to expose discrimination in water provision and defend their rights to improve living conditions and dignified life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Chilena de Derecho Privado is the property of Fundacion Fernando Fueyo Laneri and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In 2012 public service trade unions and water activists started a European Citizens' Initiative to get the human right to water implemented in European law. It became the start of the "Right2Water" movement that successfully defended drinking water supply in the European Union against European Commission plans for liberalisation, marketisation and the subsequent threat of privatisation. In countries with a good functioning public water system, resistance against privatisation of water was high, especially in Germany, Austria and Belgium, but surprisingly this level of resistance was absent in the Netherlands, which has a similarly good and well-known public water supply system. In this article we interview two persons that have both experience in European as well as in the Netherlands' water policies and legislation, and in water services provision. We investigate how the right to water is defined, legally decreed and socially interpreted and defended at different levels. We also investigate the apparent paradox with regards to water in the Netherlands, where people seemed very committed to and proud of their public water management, but did not stand up against a privatisation threat, whereas around the globe water privatisation plans are met with great resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research presents the results of a systemic literature review--establishing several inclusion and exclusion criteria based on the proposal of Tranfield, Denyer and Smart (2003)--which analyzed the state of the art regarding agroecological experiences and their intersections with the human right to water, starting with a question: The texts included fell into categories that emerged from the analysis: articles on practical experiences in agroecology; articles on the uses of water; articles on perceptions of the need for water management. From this analysis we conclude that agroecology is much more than a set of agricultural techniques--rather, it is a tool of social, environmental, and economic transformation and of resistance to conflicts and predatory political programs; that water, as well as agroecological transition, is also a powerful instrument for social transformation; and that top-down decisions are already ineffective, which renders the implementation of public policies for adaptation to climate change, as well as a joint effort, based on the participation of everyone in decision processes and action plans, a sine qua non condition for the effectiveness of different programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Chilena de Derecho Privado is the property of Fundacion Fernando Fueyo Laneri and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Objetivo: estudiar desde la perspectiva de género el consumo de agua embotellada en el contexto del desastre ambiental que provocó el derrame de 40 000 m3 de lixiviados de cobre en el río Sonora. Metodología: se realizaron 40 entrevistas, un taller y se aplicaron 28 cuestionarios en distintas localidades de la cuenca. Resultados: el agua embotellada de distintas marcas y precios se ha convertido en un elemento de diferenciación entre las mujeres. Limitaciones: se requiere ampliar la muestra y realizar análisis biomédicos para profundizar en el estudio. Valor: se contribuye a explicar los factores que intervienen en la sustitución del agua de la llave por la embotellada en la cuenca del río Sonora. Conclusiones: el enfoque de género ayuda a entender las decisiones que toman las mujeres en relación con el agua para consumo humano.

Cape Town (South Africa) provides a unique setting to critique the myriad forces producing the varied, contextual conditions of water security. In post-apartheid Cape Town, water is considered a constitutional right and all citizens are guaranteed free minimum access. Despite this progress, water security is often fragmented and personalized. This paper examines the perspectives and experiences of residents in Langa township following the 'Day Zero' event of 2018. Embedded in the optics of the crisis we found differentiated dimensions of security more reflective of the apartheid era. Our findings illustrate the need for adaptive water governance to promote water justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Lacking water service draws families into household water insecurity nexus. • Household water insecurity influences household budgets, health, time, and stress. • Ethnographic portraits explore water-insecurity nexus in US-Mexico border colonias. • Developing toward water security expands human capabilities, basic right to water. This article contributes to the growing body of research examining the complex experiences of water insecurity in low-income households in the global north. I present a schematic, and evidence to support it, for a household water-insecurity nexus in U.S-Mexico border colonias , according to which water insecurity brings forth, influences, and interacts with a number of household burdens. Drawing from eight months of field research in communities that lack connections to piped water and sewerage, I rely on ethnographic portraiture to demonstrate how water insecurity at the household level exacerbates an array of hardships experienced by low-income families. These hardships relate to household budgets, health, time, and stress. In conversation with other qualitative case studies presented in the fields of geography, anthropology, and sociology, I argue that household water insecurity is both patterned, in that it influences many hardships beyond just quality and supply, and particular, in that each site experiences hardships that are unique to contexts such as culture, geography, and ecology. I contend that a comprehensive view of water insecurity's many negative ramifications within low-income households strengthens arguments for the basic human right to water, making them more urgent, and bringing them into sharper relief. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes public utilities and the economic limits of social rights, in the context of a policy of targeted social expenditure, in order to show how Colombian constitutional jurisprudence recognizes a human right to water, limited by economic criteria which favor the interests of the water companies.

Aiming to advance our understanding of the transformative potential of remunicipalisation, this paper looks at the uncertain and unequal struggle for water remunicipalisation in Jakarta over the last 20 years, and offers an ontological account of the discourse on the human right to water as a catalyst for progressive policy change. A first, formal definition of transformative remunicipalisation is herein offered. This is defined as an ideal type of water remunicipalisation whose institutional legitimacy rests on the moral advocacy of emancipatory insurgency and whose implementation offers concrete possibilities of progress towards emancipatory objectives. With regard to moral advocacy and collective action, the hybridisation of emancipatory discourse enables transcendence of the limitations of the Western concept of the human right to water. By drawing on cross-cultural principles like 'water as life' and the primacy of human flourishing, the proponents of transformative remunicipalisation may turn the human right to water into a powerful discursive resource responding to Southern, if not universal, logics of appropriateness. While water justice is the terrain of inevitable contestation, the tensions between the normative ideals of collective action and the practice of advocacy require the constant reinterpretation of these ideals. This is why water justice, and indeed transformative remunicipalisation, will not be televised.

This article maps a meshwork of formal and informal elements of places called Disadvantaged Unincorporated Communities (DUCs) to understand the role of informality in producing unjust access to safe drinking water in California's San Joaquin Valley. It examines the spatial, racial, and class-based dimensions of informality. The paper aims to both enrich the literature on informality studies and use the concept of informality to expand research on DUCs and water access. We use socio-spatial analyses of the relationships between informality and water justice to reach the following conclusions: DUCs face severe problems in access to safe drinking water; disparities in access have a spatial dimension; inequities in water access are racialised; the proximity of DUCs to safe drinking water offers good potential for improved water access; and the challenges of informality are targeted through water justice advocacy and public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Climate action' and 'Clean water and sanitation' are two interconnected Sustainable Development Goals (6 & 13). Climate change has negative effects on all aspects of the human right to water: water's availability, quality, accessibility, affordability and acceptability. Fulfilment of Sustainable Development Goals is measured by Indicators elaborated by different kind of organs and institutions. Indicators pertains to different factors and may lead to normative consequences. As instruments of global governance they require more transparency and participation in order to foster legitimacy and effectiveness Goals' achievement. Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are examples of "governance by indicators". The main content of reports is data syntheses of various factors influencing climate evolution. However, they contain "summaries for policymakers" of unequivocally normative character based on the interpretation and generalisation of data analysis. Explanation of climatological analyses, convincing theory of probability is required in order to gain stronger civil societies' conviction for more dynamic action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most crucial discussions within water resource management is the debate between those who defend the concept of economic efficiency and those who privilege notions of social equity. This tension is located at the core of binary categories that currently constitute the public debate within comparative water law and policy. These categories are commodity/human right, private property/common property, free-market/state regulation, and market value/community value. This paper explores this tension by studying how neoclassical economics understands efficiency and tracing its rise as a key hegemonic principle for water resource management. I also present equity as a conceptual opposition to efficiency and describe its institutionalization through the human-right-to-water frame. A problematization of both the equity approach and the human-right-to-water frame follows. Finally, I propose a political ecology approach to better understand the tension between efficiency and equity and offer recommendations for informing the water research agenda on efficiency/equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the implementation of the human right to water in Tunisia, focusing on the procedural indicator on ‘participation’. The article looks at the functioning of local Water User Associations as the lowest institutional level of water management and reviews theperformance criteria for participation within these associations as applied by the Tunisian government against the background of the legal norms for the human right to water and the indicator on participation within Sustainable Development Goal 6 on water and sanitation, i.e. SDG 6.b.

Nigeria’s water sector is characterised by abysmal network coverage despite significant natural water resources potential. Most of the water sector reforms across the country encourage private sector participation in service delivery, to improve quality and efficiency. Early attempts at water privatization in Lagos State, a pioneer for water sector reforms in Nigeria, have met with stiff opposition from local water justice advocates, mostly on human rights grounds. Similar opposition has followed water reforms and privatization efforts in other parts of the country as well. Hence, this paper uses Lagos State as a case study to examine the prospects for the localisation of the human right to water within the context of private sector participation in the water sector. The findings suggest that: (a) private sector participation solely cannot account for the failure to localize the human right to water and the legal framework regulating the water sector plays an important role in determining the outcome; (b) the extant water sector law in Lagos State entrenches various forms of inequality in water access for personal and domestic uses; and (c) there is need for further legal reforms to elevate access to safe drinking water services beyond the contractual obligation on consumers to pay for services to a human right.

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Access to water has been recognized as an international human right at least since 2010, when both the United Nations General Assembly and the Human Rights Council adopted resolutions to this effect. The no significant harm principle can be found in the UN Watercourses Convention, and in numerous other global, regional, and watercourse-specific treaties. This paper provides an explanation of how the no significant harm principle and the human right to water supplement each other, by jointly protecting both the State and the individual from significant harm done, by another State, to a watercourse on which they depend. The dispute between Chile and Bolivia relating to the status and use of the Silala waters is used as a case study, to illustrate the way in which these two international legal regimes (international water law and international human rights law) supplement each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a long-standing dispute between Iran and Afghanistan over the Helmand River. In recent years, between 2002 and 2013, the access to water of the population living in the river basin in Iran has been adversely affected. As the human right to water is recognized at the international level, this paper aims to study the national implementation of the human right to water in both countries. It analyzes Afghanistan's and Iran's legislation, regulation, adopted strategies and policies at the national level. It further assesses if there is an extraterritorial obligation for both countries to respect, protect, and fulfill the human right to water. Finally, it to proposes solutions that would contribute to the fulfillment of the human right to water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to assess the role of the human right to water in realising water rights in the scenario of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). In particular, it seeks to answer the question of the extent to which the human right to water protects Palestinians' water rights in the OPT. In doing so, the article will start by analysing the human right to water and the related obligation it imposes on states in protecting water rights. In addition, the article will examine the applicability of the human right to water to the OPT and to what extent Israel is committed to realise it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the implementation of the human right to water in Tunisia, focusing on the procedural indicator on 'participation'. The article looks at the functioning of local Water User Associations as the lowest institutional level of water management and reviews theperformance criteria for participation within these associations as applied by the Tunisian government against the background of the legal norms for the human right to water and the indicator on participation within Sustainable Development Goal 6 on water and sanitation, i.e. SDG 6.b. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nigeria's water sector is characterised by abysmal network coverage despite significant natural water resources potential. Most of the water sector reforms across the country encourage private sector participation in service delivery, to improve quality and efficiency. Early attempts at water privatization in Lagos State, a pioneer for water sector reforms in Nigeria, have met with stiff opposition from local water justice advocates, mostly on human rights grounds. Similar opposition has followed water reforms and privatization efforts in other parts of the country as well. Hence, this paper uses Lagos State as a case study to examine the prospects for the localisation of the human right to water within the context of private sector participation in the water sector. The findings suggest that: (a) private sector participation solely cannot account for the failure to localize the human right to water and the legal framework regulating the water sector plays an important role in determining the outcome; (b) the extant water sector law in Lagos State entrenches various forms of inequality in water access for personal and domestic uses; and (c) there is need for further legal reforms to elevate access to safe drinking water services beyond the contractual obligation on consumers to pay for services to a human right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG6), also known as the 'water goal', one finds various (implicit) references to the internationally recognized human right to water. The aim of this paper is to further explore those linkages. More specifically, the main research question is the following: in what way does SDG6 facilitate local level implementation of the international human right to water, and does SDG6 call for a more sustainable interpretation of that human right? First, a brief overview is provided of the drafting process of SDG6, which took place in the period from 2013 to 2015, with a focus on suggested insertions into that SDG, of references to the human right to water and to local implementation. Then, the actual text of SDG6, as finally adopted in 2015, is analyzed in more detail. SDG6 is subjected to a textual analysis, in which the language of SDG6 is compared with authoritative codifications of the human right to water in the sources of international law, primarily treaties. This is followed by a brief and preliminary analysis of the monitoring and implementation process of SDG6, which began after its adoption in 2015, and will continue until the SDGs reach their expiration date in 2030. The paper ends with a conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sets the global scene for the regional and local levels elaborated upon by articles later in this special issue by addressing the following research question: What is the impact of a human right to water on the sustainable balance of water uses under the customary international water law principle of equitable and reasonable utilization as codified in the UN Watercourses Convention? In order to answer this question, first, both a human right to water and vital human needs are introduced. Second, the position of a human right to water under the UN Watercourses Convention is reviewed, focusing on vital human needs that require special regard in order to reach equitable and reasonable utilization of freshwater resources. Third, various water uses to be taken into account when aiming for a sustainable balance are considered. Finally, the shift in balance by the coming into existence of a human right to water is concluded upon: It is argued that the impact of the human right to water results in effective priority of water uses for vital human needs in the application of the principle of equitable and reasonable utilization of international watercourses, reinforcing the human right to water beyond borders in return. This article contributes to the legal discourse by linking the general principles of international water law to the human right to water, which are foremost dealt with separately in existing literature, and clarifies the position of this right in the balance of water uses in cases of transboundary water allocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Special Issue on Localising the Sustainable Human Right to Water begins with contributions focused on a global and more general perspective. These contributions provide a general introduction to the topic of the sustainable human right to water. It then shifts perspective to provide regional contributions, and finally zooms in to contributions focused on the implementation of this right at the national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]