State efforts for the right to water need to scale up
On the occasion of World Water Day, FIAN International joins the call of social movements to adopt constitutional and legislative regulatory frameworks that guarantee the availability and accessibility of water and sanitation for all, as well as the effective justiciability of the human right to water.
Ranging from non-sustainable extraction of groundwater, streams and dams, to the diversion of rivers for industrial agriculture and industry, water grabbing is a global phenomenon. It goes hand in hand with the grabbing of land, and happens at the expense of local communities – whether of farmers, fishers, urban dwellers or pastoralists – and has disastrous consequences on ecosystems and agro-pastoral systems for food production. The privatization of water and water distribution services and management – both for drinking and irrigation purposes, as well as the increase of water prices, deprive urban poor and rural communities of this vital resource.
Within this context, the West African Platform of the Global Convergence of Land and Water Struggles, has brought together the voices of social movements and organizations from across the sub-region. The so called Convergence book, handed over to different authorities in Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal and the president of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), reflects this correlation.
As echoed by social movements, clean drinking water and sanitation are critical for health and nutrition. Water is also indispensable for several uses, which are directly linked to diversified food sources and thus to nutrition security. Water is crucial for food production, particularly for small-scale – and vital for farming, fishing, and livestock maintenance, to mention just a few. Water is simply indispensable for human life.
Advances in spelling out States’ obligations under the human right to water have been observed recently, with recommendations by the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) in October 2015, General Recommendation No. 34 on the Rights of Rural Women, as well as Draft UN Declaration on the rights of peasants. Urging States to take measures to ensure access to water, all these instruments also acknowledge the intrinsic relation between water and land, within the broader context of equality, especially gender equality. Yet, violations of the right to water persist due to injustice, inequality, exclusion, and discrimination, particularly affecting women and girls.
On this day, FIAN International stresses the realization of the right to water is essential to guarantee other fundamental human rights, including the human right to food and nutrition. The organization expresses its support for the call of social movements to respect, protect, and fulfill the right to water by adopting constitutional and legislative regulatory frameworks that guarantee everyone the availability and accessibility of water and sanitation, as well as the effective justiciability of the human right to water.
You can read the Convergence Book here (available in French).