Is access to clean water a basic human right?

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0319/p06s01-woeu.html  

With the backdrop of the World Water Forum in Istanbul, this piece in the Christian Science Monitor rasies the question we've been dealing with on the cleanwaterblog - is access to clean water a basic human right?  

The CSM is reporting that, " A declaration to be signed by the ministers of some 120 countries attending the forum is expected to refer to access to water as a "basic need," rather than a right."  

But business seems to be ahead of the state parties with some (like the the AquaFed) espousing that there is a _right_ to water: "There is absolutely no conflict between the right to water and the private sector. Our industry supports the right to water," says Gerard Payen, president of AquaFed, an international federation of some 200 private water operators operating in over 30 countries

World Water Forum under way in Istanbul

The Fifth World Water Forum is under way in Istanbul, Turkey.   The six key themes of this forum are: 1) climate change; 2) Millennium Development Goals; 3) water resource management and protection; 4) financing; 5) knowledge and capacity; and 6) water governance. 

www.worldwaterforum5.org 

At a recent event on water at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, State Department Special Coordinator for Water Resources Aaron Salzberg stated that the US mission to the World Water forum will focus on among other topics financing - especially encouraging public-private in-country partnerships rather than from development assistance. 

Another focus will be managing "hydrologic variability" - i.e. managing water in places where it may downpour for a month and go dry for another eleven; where water supply is uneven and inconsistent.  

Driest place on earth - caught in the middle of a free market for water

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/world/americas/15chile.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

The New York Times recently featured an article about Quillagua, Chile, known in some record books as the driest place on earth, in the Atacama desert.  Chile, which has very liberal free market water policies where water rights are considered private property rights that can be bought, traded and sold as any other commodity.  

The principle espoused was to ensure efficiency in the use and distribution of water.  Water will be allocated, by the free market, for its greatest economic use, and in Chile, water intensive extractive industry like the copper mining are a major economic driving force.  We've seen in California, and elesewhere in the US where water is undervalued in the market by a prior appropriation system that encourages use over conservation.  In drought-stricken California, water intensive crops such as rice, cotton and alfalfa take up a large portion of irrigated land mass.  But farmers may feel compelled to use use extra water to maintain their stake in their historical volume use.

What the Chilean example shows however is lack of environmental regulation involved - the water that does flow to Quillagua is heavily polluted from mining operations upstream.   

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Reuters on California's Agriculture and Water Woes

http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN0627014620090313

California has entered one of the costliest and most severe droughts in memory, with hard-hitting effects on the agriculture sector. Reuters has presented some factoids on framing and water in California below.  California's legal water regime, a hybrid of first-in-line (senior rights or prior appropriation) and riparian doctrines.  The prior appropriation doctrine requires users to apply their share of water to continuing beneficial use - a severe impediment to conservation - if one uses less water this year, they may lose the difference next. 

March 13 (Reuters) - California is the United States' top farming state, but its future is clouded by water shortages, forecast to worsen with climate change.

Here are some facts about California farming and water:

-- California leads all states as top farm producer measured by cash receipts of $36.6 billion in 2007, 13 percent of the U.S. total and nearly twice the output of No. 2 Texas and No. 3 Iowa.

-- The state has 75,000 farms and ranches and is home to nine of the the nation's top 10 producing counties.

-- It supplies over half of U.S. fruits, nuts and vegetables and over 90 percent of U.S. almonds, artichokes, avocados, broccoli and processing tomatoes. Grapes, lettuce and almonds are the biggest crops in cash value.

-- California produces 80 percent of the world almond crop and one-third of the world's canned tomatoes.

-- California is not technically a "breadbasket." It is not a top five U.S. producer of any grain product, but it is, surprisingly, the nation's largest dairy producer.

-- Overseas exports have risen in recent years to 25 percent of total production today from 16 percent 10 years ago. The top three destinations - the European Union, Canada and Japan - accounted for nearly 60 percent of the 48-commodity total.

-- Farming accounts for 2 percent of the state's $1.6 trillion economy, but its demand for equipment, transport, labor and other services make it a key economic sector for the world's eighth-largest economy.

-- The San Joaquin Valley accounts for 60 percent of the state's prime farmland and is the world's most productive agricultural region. It depends mostly on snowpack melt from hundreds of miles away for irrigation.

-- Farming accounts for 80 percent of the state's water usage, according to the Pacific Institute, but the farm industry and government put the number much lower at 40 percent to 60 percent.

-- California is expected to suffer its third straight year of drought in 2009. Economic losses could rise to $3 billion and 95,000 agricultural jobs will be lost. Federal water deliveries will be zero and state water allocations could be 15 percent of the amount requested.

-- Over the course of this century, climate models show California's water supply dropping 24 percent to 30 percent, most in the second half, according to studies by the University of California, Davis.

(Sources: Reuters, U.S. Department of Agriculture, California Department of Food and Agriculture, Public Policy Institute of California, Pacific Institute for Studies on Development, Environment and Security, Los Angeles Times and University of California, Davis)

Coca Cola backs water and sanitation project in Kenya

http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/business/Local/Coca-Cola-in-water-projects-1775.html

Coca Cola has joined USAID and World Vision in supporting a project to improve access to clean water and sanitation in the Mara River basin in Kenya.  Funding is being provided for digging a borehole, masonry tanks, shallow wells and cattle troughs. In addition, Ventilated Improved Pit (VIP) latrines and hand washing facilities will also be installed.

New report calls for improved water reporting by business

http://www.pacinst.org/press_center/press_releases/water_disclosure_3_11_09.html

A new report by the Pacific Institute  (commissioned by the UN-established CEO Water Mandate) calls for improved usage reporting by water-intensive industries such as beverage, chip manufacturing, extractive industry, forestry products and pharmaceuticals. 

Among the most significant findings of Water Disclosure 2.0 are:

1. Corporate reporting on water needs to be expanded to include actions and impacts outside of direct operations, including information on supply chain performance, regional or local water use, and contextual information for better understanding corporate water risks and impacts.
2. Less than half of the companies assessed described their materiality assessments or their efforts to utilize stakeholder input to inform their Corporate Responsibility reporting, both key measures underpinning robust reports.
3. Water reporting was not sufficiently comprehensive or comparable, particularly with regard to a number of the “process-oriented” elements addressed in The CEO Water Mandate, including Public Policy, Supply Chain Management, and Collective Action, which were addressed by only a small percentage of companies.

See also: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/03/09/preventing_a_water_crisis/ 

Business, Human Rights and the Right to Water

A new Institute for Human Rights and Business draft report entitled "Business, Human Rights and the Right to Water: Challenges, Dilemmas and Opportunities" has been issued.  That's right - the RIGHT to water. 

http://www.institutehrb.org/reports.html

The draft report raises several questions:

1. What is the scope of a company‟s responsibility to respect the human right to water?

2. Does this responsibility extend to providing infrastructure – or water – to communities where it

operates?

3. If a company is a water service provider, does it extend only to its customers?

4. Does business have a role, or should business have a role, in providing water to the most

marginalised communities, who cannot or will not pay on principle?

5. Does the corporate responsibility to respect human rights change when a company operates in a

country where an overwhelmingly large proportion of the population lives below the poverty line?

6. Do the responsibilities of business change if a State is unwilling or unable to provide water?

7. What is the advocacy role of business? Can a company be expected to act as a champion of the

community, and lobby the government, encouraging it to fulfil its duty to protect, regardless of

capacity?

8. What precisely should businesses be reporting in terms of water and human rights?

9. What are the implications of reporting in a closed society, where the right to information is not

respected, and where there is limited, or no, political participation?

10. Is there a role for business in supporting citizens and communities to understand and demand their

right to water be fulfilled (by state - ultimate duty bearer)

11. Given the greater burden on women and girls in accessing water, is there special emphasis that

should be placed on gender issues (particularly for service providers)?

Notably, the draft report notes that some companies have recognized that water is a human right and the report advocates a "rights-based approach" by business to water issues.  

Businesses are coming under increased scrutiny as 1) users of water (beverage industry, agriculture, water-intensive industries like chip manufacturers; 2) providers of water (bottled or utilities); and 3) enablers of water (water treatment companies, pipe manufacturers).  Privatization of water resources can not be avoided in this discussion. 

At a recent event at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) State Department Special Coordinator for Water Resources Dr. Aaron Salzberg noted that in terms of the privatization the US Government position is "agnostic" - in some cases it has worked, in other cases it has not.