By Tracy Ledger
Water is essential to human existence and wellbeing: access to sufficient, clean water is central to sanitation, human health and quality of life. This was recognised as a human right by the United Nations (UN) in 2010.
Only 52 countries guarantee access to water as a human right. South Africa is one of these. Section 27 (1) (b) of the Constitution states that ‘everyone has the right to sufficient food and water’. A wide range of policy documents contain a clear state commitment to universal access to sufficient water and a recognition that affordability is a key component of this access.
But in South Africa,
- the quality of water services has declined steadily over the past decade,
- the basic minimum water-provision amount set by policy is below WHO standards,
- poor households are punished with water deprivation when they are not able to pay and
- there are serious implementation challenges in rolling out the Free Basic Water policy.
This report emphasises the following key affordability issues in a human-rights-based approach:
- The importance of concrete affordability provisions in policy, rather than vague commitments;
- Paying for water should not limit a household’s ability to acquire other basic essentials, such as food or shelter;
- It is the state’s responsibility to determine whether water is affordable, and to take remedial action where it is not, including the provision of free water.
