The debate on water as a human right and its implications for development assistance

Abstract

The article describes the basic concept and content of the human right to water and its implications for development policy on water delivery, as well as some current initiatives towards the implementation of the rights approach in development and national water politics. It summarizes the critical steps in the development of the debate on water as a human right. The first two chapters outline the current debate on the human right to water; the following chapter discusses measures and policies for the implementation of the right to water. The fourth chapter examines the added value associated with a rights based approach to water. The article ends with a short presentation of the important challenges for the future debate on the right to water. It is important to see that for ESC-rights in general a common standard of interpretation is emerging and that similar categories and standards are used to describe the content and the State obligations of all these rights. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2008.