Evolution of policy commitments

Tackling the problems of a lack of access to water by poor people has long been on the development agenda. At the same time, the need for action to reverse the trends of over-consumption, pollution and rising threats from drought and floods have engaged the environmental community. Over the last three decades water has been addressed in a series of international conferences dealing with development and/or the environment. There have also been a number of conferences focussing specifically on water. All these conferences have recognised that water is a basic human need and some have explicitly confirmed the right to water.

The UN Conference on Human Environment organised by the UN Environmental Programme in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1972, was the first attempt to move from a sectoral to a comprehensive approach to water, including all aspects of environmental protection. The conference emphasised the mutual relationship between man and the environment, expressing concern about man-made harm to the environment such as dangerous levels of pollution in water and calling for assistance to developing counties in promoting, inter alia, sanitation and water supply.

As early as 1977, United Nations Water Conference held at Mar del Plata, Argentina, confirmed that:

“[a]ll people have a right to have access to drinking water”.

Many of the subsequent conferences have approached the issues of water and sanitation from a human rights perspective, stressing the importance of equality, participation and universality. For example, the New Delhi Declaration of 1990 endorsed the principle of “some for all rather than more for some”, which reflects the fundamental human rights principle of universality (source: The New Delhi Statement adopted at the Global Consultation on Safe Water and Sanitation for the 1990s, held in New Delhi 10 - 14 September 1990).

Recognising the importance of participation and the role of women, the International Conference on Water and the Environment, Dublin, 1992, established four guiding principles for water policy:

• fresh water is a finite and vulnerable resource, essential to sustain life, development and the environment
• water development and management should be based on a participatory approach, involving users, planners and policy-makers at all levels
• women play a central part in the provision, management and safeguarding of water
• water has an economic value in all its competing uses and should be recognised as an economic good.
  

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