The Human Right to Water: Moving Toward Consensus in a Fragmented World

The problem of unmet water and sanitation service needs of one-sixth to one-third of humanity has been recognized by the UN General Assembly's 2010 Resolution on the human right to water and sanitation. However, this raises a number of questions. First, does the consensus within the General Assembly imply that all governance actors accept the right and the accompanying responsibilities and does it override other governance discourses dominant in the global arena? Second, why is a human rights discourse superior to other discourses used to address the above problem? Third, what are the challenges in implementing such a discourse and what are the potential solutions? This article argues that although there is growing consensus on the human right to water, the fragmentation of water governance implies that the impact of the consensus is limited. It argues further that there is a real and pressing need to discuss access issues in terms of human rights; but that given the implementation challenges, there is a more active need to move from public-private partnerships to public-non-governmental organization partnerships. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.