The right to water, sanitation and hygiene and the human rights-based approach to development

This paper treats the human rights-based approach to development, its specific relevance to water, sanitation and hygiene, and the implication of this approach to the water and sanitation sector. Human rights refer to rights guaranteed by international law, and carries obligations upon governments to promote them. They are rights inherent in every individual and therefore universal. A human rights-based approach to development focuses on the achievement of basic rights whilst fulfilling human need. From this perspective, lack of access to basic services such as water and sanitation are seen as denial of human rights.
There are various challenges to taking a rights-based approach to water, sanitation and hygiene. In part, this is due to the right to water and sanitation not being an explicit right, but deriving from the right to an adequate standard of health and well-being enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Attempts at the global level to set a basic water requirement are part of efforts to make the right to water and sanitation explicit.
The rights-based approach is completed by the failure of expensive supply-driven water projects in the past by governments and the donor community. Demand responsive approaches being widely promoted in the sector raise further questions as to the achievement of human rights in water, sanitation and hygiene.
Human rights are an internationally recognised standard. Thus, it is not surprising that the rights-based approach to development continues to gain ground, with some of the major donor countries and NGOs taking this approach.