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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]

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]

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.

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.)

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.)

[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]

Copyright of Ius et Praxis (07172877) is the property of Universidad de Talca 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.)

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]

In the year 2020, framed by the world pandemic -which has affected all areas of humanity- the Human Right to Water Declaration celebrates ten years. Along with its first decade, we have had to deal with the COVID-19, an enemy that requires as a fundamental practice, washing our hands, which makes the access to water indispensable, and that shows the vulnerability of certain people, due to their lack of access to the liquid. What is the meaning of this declaration for Countries and for citizens? This article searches for answers to this question, based on documental research, which is focused on the UN Millenium Development Goals, the Human Right to Water Declaration and the Sustainable Development Goals, and how they interconnect. Also, it shows the results from three different civic organizations, which research the situation of the water service in Venezuela. Finally, it discusses the experience of Gente Del Agua Carabali, an organization created to contribute with solutions in a local scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a decadal review of earth system governance (ESG) literature surrounding access and allocation to water, sanitation and hygiene. 'access and allocation' is one of five analytical problems, and 'water' a cross-cutting theme, identified in the ESG science and implementation plan (Biermann et al. 2010). A focused review of ESG and related literature reveals that the ESG literature is very robust in relation to access to water, sanitation and hygiene as a human right. However, the ESG literature lacks a robust, independent consideration of the right to hygiene or sanitation or its linkage and costs vis-à-vis other rights. There is no criteria for resolving competing demands on finite freshwater resources, as well as procedures for balancing rights. It is unclear how a transformed nuanced narrative of water access and allocation rights will address vulnerability and social inequality within this new balancing act. [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.)

The introduction of water governance to the Colombian ordering and the high sociological potential for conflict are the foundation of those analyses which links nature with human rights. From a dogmatic-descriptive and analytical research perspective, this articles proposes a link between water governance with human rights via the integration of a series of law standards linked to the Escazú Agreement and the human right to water, Among the findings, the research identified: a deficient ruling of participation and information access, a lack of knowledge from the public, some limitation on deliberation and demotivation for agreements, as well as a lack of effective integration of groups in vulnerable condition. The objectives of governance of water materialized in the basin councils, are related to integrated law standards and the research findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Gestión y Ambiente is the property of Universidad Nacional 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.)

In 2017, the government of Ecuador established the minimum quantity of water required to be provided for free by drinking water utilities. Ecuador recognized the access to water as a fundamental human right because it guarantees the good living, known as "Sumak kawsay", an indigenous Andean concept, in the Ecuadorian Constitution. This represents a novel approach to water rights in the world, as it is the first attempt to establish a minimum quantity of water under a constitutional guarantee by legislation, rather than regulation or judicial decision. However, this novel legislative approach raises the question of how this minimum amount of free water will impact the most vulnerable members of the Ecuadorian community. This paper provides the results of the first comprehensive research of the minimum required water provision in Ecuador. In order to measure the impact on the income of households, we built a methodology integrating: doctrinaire analyses, normative studies, and economic analyses. According to the Ecuadorian legislation, over-consumption of raw water generates additional costs that must be paid by water companies to the central government. In that regard, there is an inevitable relationship between the efficiency of the service and those additional costs. Efficiency, on this case, is the capacity of water companies (public or private) to provide water services at an adequate price, observing the following parameters: quantity, quality and sufficiency. Our research found that with this legislation in three Ecuadorian local governments (Cuenca, Gualaceo and Suscal), the most vulnerable households (i.e., low-income and/or indigenous households) will be affected the most. This means that and those families will spend the most part of their income on water services otherwise they would have to reduce their water consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enactment of the Water Law in Indonesia has arises public debate. The Judicial Review of the Law by the Constitutional added to this controversy as it puts the legality of the water regime in Indonesia in a "twilight zone". This article explained the historical background of the water regime in Indonesia and its development, analyze the position of water rights and human rights to water under Indonesian Constitution, elaborates the key provisions of Indonesian water law, elaborate water law's judicial review by the Constitutional Court, analyzes the legal consequences of the review and recommend the government on the parts of the law that needs to be amended or modified. The author also discusses several important issues that needs to be weighed by governments when creating the water law's implementing regulation, including regulating several standard contract provisions between government and water investors.

Groundwater law in India gives individual landowners overwhelming control over groundwater. This is inappropriate in a context where groundwater is now the main source of water for the realisation of the human right to water. This also fails to provide the basis for effective protection of groundwater at aquifer level. Increasing dependence on groundwater for all the main water uses has made the need for reforms of the legal framework increasingly acute. This article argues that groundwater law must be reconceived around a new set of principles that recognise the common nature of groundwater, its importance in realising the human right to water, the need for a governance framework starting at the local level and the need for a strong aquifer protection regime. The proposed new framework is then examined in the context of the Groundwater Model Bill, 2011 that reflects in large part this new framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A global administrative law perspective helps to make sense of the diversity of sources cited in support of the human right to water and sanitation and to explain how and why the concept might exert influence on a wide variety of actors other than states, including international institutions and private-sector investors and operators involved in the provision of water and sanitation services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 85 per cent of African freshwater comes from international rivers, the realization of the newly emerging human right to water depends on the volume and quality of shared water resources. Each continental African State shares a river with at least one other State. Thus, a State has the capacity to hamper the realization of the right in other co-riparian States by reducing the volume or polluting the shared river unless they arc legally prevented from jeopardizing the right abroad. The right would prove an empty promise for the right holders unless they are given legal avenues to hold third States accountable for their (in)actions that produce extraterritorial consequences. This article examines the extraterritorial reach of States' human rights duties in the African human rights system in the light of the regional case law and comparative jurisprudence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article summarizes the papers on water governance and policy that were presented at the fifth annual International Water History Association (IWHA) Conference "Pasts and Futures of Water," that was held in Tampere, Finland between June 13-17, 2007. Discussed is the increasing consensus that the global water crisis is a governmental problem. Particular attention is given to identifying some of the major building elements of water policy and governance. The challenges and opportunities facing the world in regard to democratic water governance within the context of international uncertainty is also examined.

The results of the analysis of water utility performance studies based on data envelopment analysis (DEA) can be very sensitive to the methodological approach and the variables employed. This study investigates approaches and variables for developing countries in order to identify an adequate model for universal access. Three models were developed and compared. The first used traditional variables, the second considered the quality of service variables, and the last are expanded on the second by incorporating the realization of the human right to water into efficiency estimation. Methodological approaches comprising the variable returns to scale DEA (most common for developing countries) and slack-based directional distance function (employed in this study) were also compared. The case study of 77 Brazilian water utilities suggests that a model that incorporates the objective of universal access in the efficiency estimation changes substantialy utility efficiency scores. Therefore, utilities that make investments to reach the universal access can be penalized since traditional models incorporate the expenses, but fail to capture the results. The research conclusions suggest that approaches and variable choices are likely to impact on the analysis results, misrepresenting them regardless of the purpose for using DEA in the study. • An efficiency assessment model considering sustainability issues is proposed. • A slack-based directional distance function model of DEA was employed. • Inequality in water access is included into DEA analysis for the first time. • The model for universal access can contribute to design incentives in the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]