It is well settled in international human rights law that a human right to water exists. Nevertheless, to date, there has been little scholarship about what the practical contours of the right should be. If legal tools are to benefit the world's poor and disenfranchised, they cannot be void due to the impossibility of implementation. This is the problem with the purported human right to water: it is quixotic.
This Article proposes a pragmatic solution to the potable water problem for the world's poor. The solution offered here is based on a model of privatized access to water grounded in a microfinancing paradigm that is in turn founded on a loan program incorporated into the New Deal's Rural Electrification Act. The proposed paradigm therefore sidesteps the rights-based scheme by resting upon a more concrete foundation based on measurable results (i.e., the number of the world's 2.2 billion people who lack potable water that will obtain access to water versus the number that will not).
The document proposes developing a national action plan to implement the right to water and sanitation in Ghana. It provides background on the evolution of these rights under international law and in Ghana. Key issues include only 59% of Ghanaians having access to improved water and 13% to improved sanitation. Bottlenecks to implementing the rights are the financing gap, with only 35% of needed funds invested annually, and some misconceptions that the rights mean services must be free or will open the government to lawsuits. The action plan aims to address these challenges and translate the human rights to reality for Ghanaians.
Domestic opposition to large dam projects first emerged in many countries in the 1950s-1970s. In the 1980s, opponents began building transnational linkages and took on the World Bank, the largest funder of big dams. By the 1990s, the campaign had reduced World Bank funding for dams by 60% and led to the creation of the independent World Commission on Dams in 1997 to review dams and development standards.
Lake Ontario Waterkeeper's submission on the Navigation Protection Act ReviewLOWaterkeeper
On Wednesday, November 30, 2016, Lake Ontario Waterkeeper submitted comments to the Government of Canada on changes made to the Navigation Protection Act (formerly, "Navigable Waters Protection Act") – one of Canada’s oldest laws. Until 2009, the law remained substantially unchanged, when sweeping changes to the legislation eliminated protections for the majority of navigable waters in Canada and focused the law on specific acts of navigation on waters of interest to the federal government. Waterkeeper was the only environmental organization to participate in the committee review prior to the 2009 changes, and again in 2012. Here are Waterkeeper's recommendations for the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities’ consideration.
This is Cat Tales, the e-newsletter of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, for January/February 2015. Included in this issue:
• ICLR releases new book: ‘Cities adapt to extreme rainfall: Celebrating local leadership’
• Intensity-Duration-Frequency under Climate Change Tool rollout
• U.S. establishes new federal flood risk management standard to account for climate risks
• New ICLR publication: Best practices guide: Management of inflow and infiltration (I&I) in new urban developments
This collection of insights from www.futureagenda.org were used as stimulus for an RNLI Futures Workshop. The workshop would generate future oriented scenarios that could yield value creation and lifesaving opportunities for the RNLI in the future.
The document discusses the state of water infrastructure in New Jersey cities with combined sewer systems (CSS). It notes that 21 New Jersey cities have CSS that discharge untreated sewage and stormwater, totaling around 7 billion gallons annually, into waterways. These cities face a looming federal mandate to develop long-term control plans to upgrade their infrastructure to meet Clean Water Act requirements. The upgrades will be extremely expensive and take decades to implement. Coordinating the work will be challenging as infrastructure ownership and management is spread across many jurisdictions. Interviews with six large CSS cities found incomplete recordkeeping of water, wastewater and stormwater systems, which complicates planning for necessary repairs and improvements.
Drought risk and resilience decision support - Chris Hughes, Arup, at IWA 2019The Resilience Shift
Chris Hughes, drought specialist at Arup, has written a guest blog for the Resilience Shift. In it he discusses some of the ways cities might better prepare for drought and resilience to water scarcity. Chris spoke about the work of his team recently at the IWA Conference on Efficient Water Management in Manila in January this year and referenced the Resilience Shift, and its work on the City Water Resilience Approach and online collaboration tool. You can see his presentation here.
This document provides an overview of the legal framework and efforts around river rejuvenation in India. It discusses the major issues facing rivers in India like increasing pollution and decreasing water levels. It outlines several key laws and acts related to water pollution prevention and control. It also examines some important legal cases that have helped enforce environmental protections. Overall, the document analyzes the status of rivers in India, the role of law and legal awareness, and efforts by various agencies to promote river conservation and rejuvenation.
The document proposes developing a national action plan to implement the right to water and sanitation in Ghana. It provides background on the evolution of these rights under international law and in Ghana. Key issues include only 59% of Ghanaians having access to improved water and 13% to improved sanitation. Bottlenecks to implementing the rights are the financing gap, with only 35% of needed funds invested annually, and some misconceptions that the rights mean services must be free or will open the government to lawsuits. The action plan aims to address these challenges and translate the human rights to reality for Ghanaians.
Domestic opposition to large dam projects first emerged in many countries in the 1950s-1970s. In the 1980s, opponents began building transnational linkages and took on the World Bank, the largest funder of big dams. By the 1990s, the campaign had reduced World Bank funding for dams by 60% and led to the creation of the independent World Commission on Dams in 1997 to review dams and development standards.
Lake Ontario Waterkeeper's submission on the Navigation Protection Act ReviewLOWaterkeeper
On Wednesday, November 30, 2016, Lake Ontario Waterkeeper submitted comments to the Government of Canada on changes made to the Navigation Protection Act (formerly, "Navigable Waters Protection Act") – one of Canada’s oldest laws. Until 2009, the law remained substantially unchanged, when sweeping changes to the legislation eliminated protections for the majority of navigable waters in Canada and focused the law on specific acts of navigation on waters of interest to the federal government. Waterkeeper was the only environmental organization to participate in the committee review prior to the 2009 changes, and again in 2012. Here are Waterkeeper's recommendations for the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities’ consideration.
This is Cat Tales, the e-newsletter of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, for January/February 2015. Included in this issue:
• ICLR releases new book: ‘Cities adapt to extreme rainfall: Celebrating local leadership’
• Intensity-Duration-Frequency under Climate Change Tool rollout
• U.S. establishes new federal flood risk management standard to account for climate risks
• New ICLR publication: Best practices guide: Management of inflow and infiltration (I&I) in new urban developments
This collection of insights from www.futureagenda.org were used as stimulus for an RNLI Futures Workshop. The workshop would generate future oriented scenarios that could yield value creation and lifesaving opportunities for the RNLI in the future.
The document discusses the state of water infrastructure in New Jersey cities with combined sewer systems (CSS). It notes that 21 New Jersey cities have CSS that discharge untreated sewage and stormwater, totaling around 7 billion gallons annually, into waterways. These cities face a looming federal mandate to develop long-term control plans to upgrade their infrastructure to meet Clean Water Act requirements. The upgrades will be extremely expensive and take decades to implement. Coordinating the work will be challenging as infrastructure ownership and management is spread across many jurisdictions. Interviews with six large CSS cities found incomplete recordkeeping of water, wastewater and stormwater systems, which complicates planning for necessary repairs and improvements.
Drought risk and resilience decision support - Chris Hughes, Arup, at IWA 2019The Resilience Shift
Chris Hughes, drought specialist at Arup, has written a guest blog for the Resilience Shift. In it he discusses some of the ways cities might better prepare for drought and resilience to water scarcity. Chris spoke about the work of his team recently at the IWA Conference on Efficient Water Management in Manila in January this year and referenced the Resilience Shift, and its work on the City Water Resilience Approach and online collaboration tool. You can see his presentation here.
This document provides an overview of the legal framework and efforts around river rejuvenation in India. It discusses the major issues facing rivers in India like increasing pollution and decreasing water levels. It outlines several key laws and acts related to water pollution prevention and control. It also examines some important legal cases that have helped enforce environmental protections. Overall, the document analyzes the status of rivers in India, the role of law and legal awareness, and efforts by various agencies to promote river conservation and rejuvenation.
The document summarizes events related to World Water Day held on March 22nd. It discusses events held by various Caribbean water utilities to celebrate and raise awareness about water issues. Specifically, it discusses events held by the Water Authority of the Cayman Islands, DOWASCO in Dominica, and inauguration of a solar photovoltaic project partnership between the Barbados Water Authority and the United Arab Emirates. It also provides information on chlorine safety workshops hosted by CAWASA and the Chlorine Institute in Saint Lucia. The overarching theme of World Water Day 2019 was "leaving no one behind" and ensuring access to water and sanitation for all.
Corporate control of water resources has increased dramatically since the 1980s due to policies promoted by international organizations like the World Bank that treat water as an economic commodity. These policies have encouraged privatization of water systems and prioritized private sector financing over public financing. As a result, large multinational corporations now provide water services to hundreds of millions of people globally and have gained control over water resources in many developing nations, often with negative consequences like increased costs, water shut-offs, and environmental damage.
Rights, Needs and Responsibilities in Water Governance: Reflections from Sout...STEPS Centre
This document summarizes a presentation on water governance in South Africa. It discusses tensions between viewing water as a human right versus an economic good, and between public vs. private water provision. It outlines South Africa's major water reforms in the late 1990s that enshrined water access as a human right. However, court cases later narrowed the definition of basic water needs. There are also challenges in clearly defining responsibilities across rural and urban water services given complex governance arrangements. The document calls for redefining needs, rights and responsibilities in a way that better reflects people's realities and promotes sustainable services.
Public-Private Partnerships — or PPPs — are increasingly being promoted as a way to finance development projects. This report gives an in-depth, evidence-based analysis of the impact of 10 PPP projects, including two from India, that have taken place across four continents and in both developed and developing countries.
The Centre for Financial Accountability aims to strengthen and improve financial accountability within India by engaging in critical analysis, monitoring and critique of the role of financial institutions – national and international, and their impact on development, human rights and the environment, amongst other areas. For more information visit http://www.cenfa.org Get in touch with us at info@cenfa.org
We also publish Finance Matters, a weekly newsletter on the development finance. The archive can be accessed at http://www.cenfa.org/newsletter-archive/
To subscribe, email us at newsletter@cenfa.org
The document discusses challenges related to water security and cooperation over transboundary waters in the context of climate change. It notes that climate change is increasing water stress through greater uncertainty over water availability and more frequent droughts and floods. This highlights the need for cooperative management of transboundary waters. The rule of law provides a framework for cooperation through principles of equitable utilization and the duty to cooperate on information sharing, notification of planned measures, and joint institutions. Dynamic cooperation is needed to build the capacity for hydro-diplomacy and hydro-solidarity to manage uncertainties and ensure the optimal, equitable and sustainable utilization of shared waters.
The document discusses the 1997 UN Watercourses Convention and its role in establishing a framework for governance of transboundary water resources. It provides context on the increasing challenges of transboundary water management. It then summarizes the process of developing the convention from 1970 to 1997 and its key principles of equitable and reasonable utilization, no significant harm, and protection of ecosystems. It also outlines some of the convention's procedural provisions regarding notification and consultation between states sharing watercourses.
Cpd water diplomacy initiative april 2012 policy brieAMMY30
This document discusses water diplomacy and outlines recommendations for how public diplomacy tools can help address global water challenges. It notes that while water is essential for human life, it is increasingly scarce due to problems like pollution, lack of conservation programs and mismanagement. The document recommends that the U.S. make water diplomacy a priority, fulfill commitments to increase access to water under the Senator Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act of 2005, and establish an international water diplomacy working group to facilitate partnerships and share best practices. Public diplomacy, the document argues, is crucial for achieving water and foreign policy goals through listening, training and raising awareness of water issues.
The document discusses the UN Watercourses Convention and international water law. It provides background on the convention's development from 1970-1997 through government responses, reports by UN special rapporteurs, and outcomes. The convention establishes a framework for cooperation between states on shared water resources. It covers substantive norms like equitable utilization and no significant harm. Procedural provisions emphasize cooperation, data exchange, joint institutions, and dispute settlement. However, the convention has yet to enter into force due to an insufficient number of ratifying countries. Proponents hope more countries will ratify to strengthen international water law.
A presentation about the big picture of water sustainability, the critical necessity of innovative or less traditional partnerships, and the opportunity for U.S. leadership.
THE HUMAN RIGHT TO WATER A GUIDE FOR FIRST NATIONS COMUNITIES AND ADVOCATES MYO AUNG Myanmar
https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/water1019_brochure_web.pdf
THE HUMAN RIGHT TO WATER A GUIDE FOR FIRST NATIONS COMUNITIES AND ADVOCATES
https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/canada0616web.pdf
Make it Safe
Canada’s Obligation to End the First Nations Water Crisis
https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/canada0616_brochure_web.pdf
SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
US-Mexico Transboundary Water Sharing & Human Rights ViolationsAmira Noeuv
The document discusses water sharing between the US and Mexico, human rights violations resulting from their agreements, and considerations for future policies. It summarizes the 1944 Water Treaty between the two countries, which apportions water from the Colorado River and Rio Grande River. However, the treaty neglects important issues like groundwater use and environmental sustainability. As a result, socioeconomically underrepresented communities, immigrants, and indigenous groups on both sides of the border experience human rights violations related to access to clean water. The document calls for policies to address these shortcomings while also considering the treaty's successes and efforts by groups like the International Boundary and Water Commission.
The document summarizes discussions that took place at a UN conference on water from June 8-10, 2010. Key topics included:
1) Debates around whether international law should protect control of water resources by upstream countries or ensure access for all downstream countries.
2) Concerns from Nigeria that their national statistics inaccurately report improvements in water quality and access due to sampling errors.
3) Discussions on the importance of integrated management of water resources, agriculture, energy and other sectors. However, some noted that high-tech solutions may not always be appropriate for developing countries.
4) Speeches from the presidents of Tajikistan and Iran supporting Tajikistan's proposal to provide
This document summarizes a lecture on water allocation, quality, and conflict management. It discusses how water scarcity due to factors like population growth and climate change increases the potential for water conflicts. While some argue water conflicts could lead to "water wars", data shows most disputes are non-violent and there are more cooperative agreements than conflicts. Successful management of water disputes involves moving from adversarial stances to cooperative solutions that increase benefits for all parties. Key aspects of managing conflicts include addressing the root causes, allowing stakeholder participation, and focusing on future needs rather than past rights.
The Hidden Danger of Failing Water InfrastructureDaniel Guest
America’s water infrastructure is in a state of crisis. Both our water and our wastewater pipeline systems are in disrepair. In fact, the American Society for Civil Engineers (“ASCE”), a preeminent, respected authority on structural systems reliability and maintenance management, grades the condition of today’s drinking water infrastructure a D. What is more, the ASCE also gives the score of D to our wastewater infrastructure. A “D” is not a good place to be.
This document summarizes an experimental study on the impact of community contribution requirements for installing safe water sources in rural Bangladesh. The study randomly assigned communities to different contribution requirements and compared outcomes. It found that requiring a cash contribution greatly decreased program participation, while requiring labor contributions did not. Program impact was lower under the cash requirement. The quality of decision making was better under the labor contribution. Overall, the results suggest that allowing labor rather than cash contributions may increase welfare in poor rural communities by imposing a lower real cost.
Rodney T. Smith presented an analysis of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to the San Diego County Water Authority. He summarized that the BDCP capital costs are underestimated and will likely be $14.7-14.9 billion, not the estimated $12.7 billion. The cost of water from the BDCP would be $625-890 per acre foot at minimum due to capital costs and operating expenses. However, water from the BDCP would not provide reliable supply as most of the additional yield would come in wet years. Smith predicted agriculture interests would withdraw support for the BDCP and it would need to be restructured as a supplemental project for municipal water users, likely with the inclusion of storage.
The document discusses how five megatrends - resources, digital disruption, high public debt, the New Silk Road, and urbanization - are transforming infrastructure needs and opportunities globally. These megatrends present both risks and opportunities for current infrastructure assets and investors. To maximize opportunities and manage risks, the document argues that investors need to take a forward-thinking approach and reimagine what constitutes infrastructure in light of how the megatrends are changing social and business needs over the long-term.
This document proposes a solution to India's drinking water and sanitation issues. The solution involves building desalination plants along with a network of Water Distribution Centers (WDCs) across blocks. Purified water from the plants would be distributed to consumers via the WDCs. A smart card system would provide subsidies to families. Additional components include surveys, community awareness programs, and maintaining WDCs. To address sanitation, the solution proposes simplified sewers, biodegradable toilets, composting plants, and appointing village cleaners. An organizational structure and estimated annual budget of Rs. 11,500 crores are also outlined.
Mission: Magazine, Issue #6 - The Magazine that Addresses Critical Water IssuesXylem Inc.
Mission: Water is a complimentary magazine featuring the world's most current water issues and how people, like you, are tackling these ever-important challenges. Our mission is to share inspirational stories of determination, curiosity and discovery – and how great advancements are being made to better understand and protect our vital water resources.
This issue includes flood protection, harmful algal blooms, and red tide monitoring.
https://www.ysi.com/mission-water
Media frames and Memory: Social constructions of climate change following the...Erin Bohensky
This document analyzes media coverage and social memory surrounding the 2011 Brisbane floods in relation to climate change. It finds that media narratives either linked the floods to climate change (40%), denied any link (40%), said the relationship was unclear (14%), or that the floods proved climate change (6%). One year later, there was little media discussion. The analysis suggests media frames and short-term focus can hamper understanding of climate change and adaptation, as the issues require analysis over longer time periods. Building better "disaster memory" through research may support more effective climate adaptation.
This document discusses existing estimates of minimum water requirements for human health and development. Estimates range widely from 20 liters to over 4,000 liters per person per day. The document argues for a new conceptual framework that considers how societies adapt to water scarcity through trade, and focuses on water needs for domestic use and a non-agricultural economy rather than self-sufficiency. Based on this framework, the document estimates a minimum requirement of 135 liters per person per day to allow for social and economic development.
Gabriel patino global water crisis projectGabriel Patino
The document discusses the global water crisis in three parts. It begins by defining the crisis as the inability to provide a reliable drinking water supply to populations around the world. Over 780 million people still lack access to clean water. It then examines why the crisis matters by outlining the health and economic impacts of unsafe water. Finally, it analyzes why the water crisis is a transnational issue that requires global cooperation, discussing factors like unequal access and the challenge of meeting growing demand. Examples from Qatar, China, and the shrinking Aral Sea are provided to illustrate different aspects of the complex and urgent global water problem.
The document summarizes events related to World Water Day held on March 22nd. It discusses events held by various Caribbean water utilities to celebrate and raise awareness about water issues. Specifically, it discusses events held by the Water Authority of the Cayman Islands, DOWASCO in Dominica, and inauguration of a solar photovoltaic project partnership between the Barbados Water Authority and the United Arab Emirates. It also provides information on chlorine safety workshops hosted by CAWASA and the Chlorine Institute in Saint Lucia. The overarching theme of World Water Day 2019 was "leaving no one behind" and ensuring access to water and sanitation for all.
Corporate control of water resources has increased dramatically since the 1980s due to policies promoted by international organizations like the World Bank that treat water as an economic commodity. These policies have encouraged privatization of water systems and prioritized private sector financing over public financing. As a result, large multinational corporations now provide water services to hundreds of millions of people globally and have gained control over water resources in many developing nations, often with negative consequences like increased costs, water shut-offs, and environmental damage.
Rights, Needs and Responsibilities in Water Governance: Reflections from Sout...STEPS Centre
This document summarizes a presentation on water governance in South Africa. It discusses tensions between viewing water as a human right versus an economic good, and between public vs. private water provision. It outlines South Africa's major water reforms in the late 1990s that enshrined water access as a human right. However, court cases later narrowed the definition of basic water needs. There are also challenges in clearly defining responsibilities across rural and urban water services given complex governance arrangements. The document calls for redefining needs, rights and responsibilities in a way that better reflects people's realities and promotes sustainable services.
Public-Private Partnerships — or PPPs — are increasingly being promoted as a way to finance development projects. This report gives an in-depth, evidence-based analysis of the impact of 10 PPP projects, including two from India, that have taken place across four continents and in both developed and developing countries.
The Centre for Financial Accountability aims to strengthen and improve financial accountability within India by engaging in critical analysis, monitoring and critique of the role of financial institutions – national and international, and their impact on development, human rights and the environment, amongst other areas. For more information visit http://www.cenfa.org Get in touch with us at info@cenfa.org
We also publish Finance Matters, a weekly newsletter on the development finance. The archive can be accessed at http://www.cenfa.org/newsletter-archive/
To subscribe, email us at newsletter@cenfa.org
The document discusses challenges related to water security and cooperation over transboundary waters in the context of climate change. It notes that climate change is increasing water stress through greater uncertainty over water availability and more frequent droughts and floods. This highlights the need for cooperative management of transboundary waters. The rule of law provides a framework for cooperation through principles of equitable utilization and the duty to cooperate on information sharing, notification of planned measures, and joint institutions. Dynamic cooperation is needed to build the capacity for hydro-diplomacy and hydro-solidarity to manage uncertainties and ensure the optimal, equitable and sustainable utilization of shared waters.
The document discusses the 1997 UN Watercourses Convention and its role in establishing a framework for governance of transboundary water resources. It provides context on the increasing challenges of transboundary water management. It then summarizes the process of developing the convention from 1970 to 1997 and its key principles of equitable and reasonable utilization, no significant harm, and protection of ecosystems. It also outlines some of the convention's procedural provisions regarding notification and consultation between states sharing watercourses.
Cpd water diplomacy initiative april 2012 policy brieAMMY30
This document discusses water diplomacy and outlines recommendations for how public diplomacy tools can help address global water challenges. It notes that while water is essential for human life, it is increasingly scarce due to problems like pollution, lack of conservation programs and mismanagement. The document recommends that the U.S. make water diplomacy a priority, fulfill commitments to increase access to water under the Senator Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act of 2005, and establish an international water diplomacy working group to facilitate partnerships and share best practices. Public diplomacy, the document argues, is crucial for achieving water and foreign policy goals through listening, training and raising awareness of water issues.
The document discusses the UN Watercourses Convention and international water law. It provides background on the convention's development from 1970-1997 through government responses, reports by UN special rapporteurs, and outcomes. The convention establishes a framework for cooperation between states on shared water resources. It covers substantive norms like equitable utilization and no significant harm. Procedural provisions emphasize cooperation, data exchange, joint institutions, and dispute settlement. However, the convention has yet to enter into force due to an insufficient number of ratifying countries. Proponents hope more countries will ratify to strengthen international water law.
A presentation about the big picture of water sustainability, the critical necessity of innovative or less traditional partnerships, and the opportunity for U.S. leadership.
THE HUMAN RIGHT TO WATER A GUIDE FOR FIRST NATIONS COMUNITIES AND ADVOCATES MYO AUNG Myanmar
https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/water1019_brochure_web.pdf
THE HUMAN RIGHT TO WATER A GUIDE FOR FIRST NATIONS COMUNITIES AND ADVOCATES
https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/canada0616web.pdf
Make it Safe
Canada’s Obligation to End the First Nations Water Crisis
https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/canada0616_brochure_web.pdf
SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
US-Mexico Transboundary Water Sharing & Human Rights ViolationsAmira Noeuv
The document discusses water sharing between the US and Mexico, human rights violations resulting from their agreements, and considerations for future policies. It summarizes the 1944 Water Treaty between the two countries, which apportions water from the Colorado River and Rio Grande River. However, the treaty neglects important issues like groundwater use and environmental sustainability. As a result, socioeconomically underrepresented communities, immigrants, and indigenous groups on both sides of the border experience human rights violations related to access to clean water. The document calls for policies to address these shortcomings while also considering the treaty's successes and efforts by groups like the International Boundary and Water Commission.
The document summarizes discussions that took place at a UN conference on water from June 8-10, 2010. Key topics included:
1) Debates around whether international law should protect control of water resources by upstream countries or ensure access for all downstream countries.
2) Concerns from Nigeria that their national statistics inaccurately report improvements in water quality and access due to sampling errors.
3) Discussions on the importance of integrated management of water resources, agriculture, energy and other sectors. However, some noted that high-tech solutions may not always be appropriate for developing countries.
4) Speeches from the presidents of Tajikistan and Iran supporting Tajikistan's proposal to provide
This document summarizes a lecture on water allocation, quality, and conflict management. It discusses how water scarcity due to factors like population growth and climate change increases the potential for water conflicts. While some argue water conflicts could lead to "water wars", data shows most disputes are non-violent and there are more cooperative agreements than conflicts. Successful management of water disputes involves moving from adversarial stances to cooperative solutions that increase benefits for all parties. Key aspects of managing conflicts include addressing the root causes, allowing stakeholder participation, and focusing on future needs rather than past rights.
The Hidden Danger of Failing Water InfrastructureDaniel Guest
America’s water infrastructure is in a state of crisis. Both our water and our wastewater pipeline systems are in disrepair. In fact, the American Society for Civil Engineers (“ASCE”), a preeminent, respected authority on structural systems reliability and maintenance management, grades the condition of today’s drinking water infrastructure a D. What is more, the ASCE also gives the score of D to our wastewater infrastructure. A “D” is not a good place to be.
This document summarizes an experimental study on the impact of community contribution requirements for installing safe water sources in rural Bangladesh. The study randomly assigned communities to different contribution requirements and compared outcomes. It found that requiring a cash contribution greatly decreased program participation, while requiring labor contributions did not. Program impact was lower under the cash requirement. The quality of decision making was better under the labor contribution. Overall, the results suggest that allowing labor rather than cash contributions may increase welfare in poor rural communities by imposing a lower real cost.
Rodney T. Smith presented an analysis of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to the San Diego County Water Authority. He summarized that the BDCP capital costs are underestimated and will likely be $14.7-14.9 billion, not the estimated $12.7 billion. The cost of water from the BDCP would be $625-890 per acre foot at minimum due to capital costs and operating expenses. However, water from the BDCP would not provide reliable supply as most of the additional yield would come in wet years. Smith predicted agriculture interests would withdraw support for the BDCP and it would need to be restructured as a supplemental project for municipal water users, likely with the inclusion of storage.
The document discusses how five megatrends - resources, digital disruption, high public debt, the New Silk Road, and urbanization - are transforming infrastructure needs and opportunities globally. These megatrends present both risks and opportunities for current infrastructure assets and investors. To maximize opportunities and manage risks, the document argues that investors need to take a forward-thinking approach and reimagine what constitutes infrastructure in light of how the megatrends are changing social and business needs over the long-term.
This document proposes a solution to India's drinking water and sanitation issues. The solution involves building desalination plants along with a network of Water Distribution Centers (WDCs) across blocks. Purified water from the plants would be distributed to consumers via the WDCs. A smart card system would provide subsidies to families. Additional components include surveys, community awareness programs, and maintaining WDCs. To address sanitation, the solution proposes simplified sewers, biodegradable toilets, composting plants, and appointing village cleaners. An organizational structure and estimated annual budget of Rs. 11,500 crores are also outlined.
Mission: Magazine, Issue #6 - The Magazine that Addresses Critical Water IssuesXylem Inc.
Mission: Water is a complimentary magazine featuring the world's most current water issues and how people, like you, are tackling these ever-important challenges. Our mission is to share inspirational stories of determination, curiosity and discovery – and how great advancements are being made to better understand and protect our vital water resources.
This issue includes flood protection, harmful algal blooms, and red tide monitoring.
https://www.ysi.com/mission-water
Media frames and Memory: Social constructions of climate change following the...Erin Bohensky
This document analyzes media coverage and social memory surrounding the 2011 Brisbane floods in relation to climate change. It finds that media narratives either linked the floods to climate change (40%), denied any link (40%), said the relationship was unclear (14%), or that the floods proved climate change (6%). One year later, there was little media discussion. The analysis suggests media frames and short-term focus can hamper understanding of climate change and adaptation, as the issues require analysis over longer time periods. Building better "disaster memory" through research may support more effective climate adaptation.
This document discusses existing estimates of minimum water requirements for human health and development. Estimates range widely from 20 liters to over 4,000 liters per person per day. The document argues for a new conceptual framework that considers how societies adapt to water scarcity through trade, and focuses on water needs for domestic use and a non-agricultural economy rather than self-sufficiency. Based on this framework, the document estimates a minimum requirement of 135 liters per person per day to allow for social and economic development.
Gabriel patino global water crisis projectGabriel Patino
The document discusses the global water crisis in three parts. It begins by defining the crisis as the inability to provide a reliable drinking water supply to populations around the world. Over 780 million people still lack access to clean water. It then examines why the crisis matters by outlining the health and economic impacts of unsafe water. Finally, it analyzes why the water crisis is a transnational issue that requires global cooperation, discussing factors like unequal access and the challenge of meeting growing demand. Examples from Qatar, China, and the shrinking Aral Sea are provided to illustrate different aspects of the complex and urgent global water problem.
Developed from a position paper prepared by Lenin Tinashe Chisaira for the Civil Society Consortium on Constitution Monitoring and Implementation. Presented at the consortium meeting at Elephant hills hotel, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Views are mine
The document discusses the global challenges of water resource management. It notes that rapid population growth, increasing water demands, deteriorating water quality, and climate change are exacerbating a global water crisis. While there have been many international agreements regarding this crisis, little progress has been made in implementing solutions. Achieving targets for access to safe drinking water and sanitation by 2015 will require significant increases in funding from national governments, international donors, and private sector investment. Pricing water appropriately and utilizing public-private partnerships could help address the crisis by increasing investment while protecting access for poor communities.
The document discusses the need for reform in the water and sanitation sector. It argues that the current approach focuses too much on charity rather than development, leading to high rates of project failure. Communities are expected to contribute through "sweat equity" but this does not create a sense of ownership and ensure long-term success. The CEO of Water For People calls for a new partnership between philanthropists and development agencies that leverages donations to instill financial responsibility in communities and governments. He advocates for new metrics that assess long-term functionality and sustainability beyond just counting initial access.
This document has been prepared by the Agham Advocates of Science& Technology for the People (AGHAM) to aid local communities threatened by dam projects. This reference document contain information and tools that can be used by the community to have a better understanding of dams and make informed decisions how to collectively approach the dam project in their area. This guide is not exhaustive and complete, but centers on basic questions to learn more about the dam project in the area and to guide further research.
This document discusses water storage through reservoirs for sustainable development and poverty eradication. It notes that reservoirs have long been used to manage floods and droughts, but some groups now oppose reservoirs. However, reservoirs provide important benefits like water supply, irrigation, flood control and hydropower. They also note that South America, including Brazil, has ideal conditions for hydropower due to high rainfall but has underdeveloped water storage infrastructure compared to other regions. The author argues that sustainable development requires infrastructure investment, including reservoirs, to ensure access to water and electricity for all.
A Review Paper On Water Resource ManagementSabrina Baloi
This document summarizes key concepts in water resource management. It discusses how water management structures can change water regimes and impact stakeholders. It also notes that while water projects aim to provide economic benefits, some populations have inadequate access to safe water for basic needs. The document then reviews experts' concepts on water management and financing allocations. It identifies areas for further addressing such as governance, accountability, gender, and targeting of aid and sector budgets. Finally, it discusses developing a framework for water management that is measurable, affordable and applicable globally.
Swim Drink Fish submission regarding Bill C-69LOWaterkeeper
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43 vand j tran l 701 a global water apartheid from revelation to resolution
1. 43 Vand. J. Transnat'l L. 701
Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law
May, 2010
Article
*701 A GLOBAL WATER APARTHEID: FROM REVELATION TO RESOLUTION
Itzchak Kornfeld [FNa1]
Copyright (c) 2000-2010 Vanderbilt University Law School; Itzchak Kornfeld
Abstract
It is well settled in international human rights law that a human right to water exists.
Nevertheless, to date, there has been little scholarship about what the practical contours of the
right should be. If legal tools are to benefit the world's poor and disenfranchised, they cannot be
void due to the impossibility of implementation. This is the problem with the purported human
right to water: it is quixotic.
This Article proposes a pragmatic solution to the potable water problem for the world's poor.
The solution offered here is based on a model of privatized access to water grounded in a
microfinancing paradigm that is in turn founded on a loan program incorporated into the New
Deal's Rural Electrification Act. The proposed paradigm therefore sidesteps the rights-based
scheme by resting upon a more concrete foundation based on measurable results (i.e., the number
of the world's 2.2 billion people who lack potable water that will obtain access to water versus
the number that will not).
Table of Contents
I. Introduction....................................................... 702
A. The Dilemma with the Right................................... 704
II. A World Wanting for Clean Water.................................. 706
A. The Enormity of the Problem.................................. 706
III. Privatization, Multinational Corporations, and the World Bank: An Uneasy
Marriage....................................................................................................
709
A. Johannesburg, South Africa................................... 710
B. Cochabamba, Bolivia........................................... 711
C. Trade Liberalization and Water Scarcity.................... 712
1. New Delhi, India............................................ 713
2. Tamil Nadu................................................... 714
D. Whisper Sweet Dollars in My Ear............................. 714
2. IV. Exploring Alternatives............................................ 718
A. The Case for Community Privatization........................ 718
B. Surefootedness in a Middle Ground: Alternatives to Corporate
Privatization....................................................................................................
718
1. Savelugu's Partnership..................................... 718
2. Cato Crest's Standpipes.................................... 719
V. A Proven Model for Success: The New Deal's Rural Electric
Cooperatives......................................................................................................
720
A. The Rural Electrification Administration: The Early
Years........................................................................................................
721
B. The Failure of the Market and Government Intervention..... 721
C. The Stimulation of Supply and Demand........................ 723
VI. Application to Water.............................................. 725
A. Raising the Capital to Drill Water Wells................... 726
B. The Inner-Workings of the Microcredit System............... 728
C. Convergence.................................................... 729
D. Deploying Experts............................................. 730
VII. Conclusion......................................................... 731
*702 “[W]hoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And
whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.” [FN1]
I. Introduction
In 1992, Professor Stephen McCaffrey authored a seminal article proposing a human right to
water. [FN2] Since then, his efforts have *703 fostered a stream of scholarship affirming his
proposed entitlement. [FN3] Today, the existence of a human right to water is seldom
challenged, and it now appears to be well rooted in international human rights law. [FN4]
Nevertheless, to date, there has been little scholarship about what the practical contours of that
entitlement should be.
Furthermore, those international lawyers who promote the right to water generally ground
their argument in the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. [FN5]
However, only 66 of the world's 199 countries are signatories to the treaty. [FN6] Furthermore,
even where the Convention has been ratified and found to be justiciable, [FN7] it is impossible
for a court to hold a state actor in *704 contempt due to its inability to provide potable water to
its citizens, and refusal by a state actor to provide water has rarely been prosecuted. [FN8] This
is particularly true for the world's Least Developed Countries (LDCs), [FN9] which cannot
afford to provide their citizens with water. Moreover, national and international courts are
powerless to enforce the right against any dictator who does not wish to provide his people with
potable water and good sanitation.
A. The Dilemma with the Right
There are two fundamental problems with the “right.” First, it is unenforceable. [FN10]
Indeed, it is axiomatic that there can be no right without a remedy. [FN11] In addition, as Joseph
3. Vining observed, “[t]hat *705 which evokes no sense of obligation is not law. It is only the
appearance of law.” [FN12] Thus, the putative right is of little help or solace to those who have
no access to potable water or to the millions who die annually due to its unavailability. [FN13]
Second, the rights scholars do not address how the issue of privatization of water utilities,
especially the failure of corporate privatization and the commodification of water, should fall
within the penumbra of the right. [FN14] These issues have yet to be addressed, leaving this area
of the law unsettled and burdened by practical pitfalls.
This Article proposes a legal and pragmatic solution to the problem of potable water for the
world's poor and unpacks the contours of the human right to water. The solution is based on a
model of privatized access to water [FN15] grounded in a microfinancing paradigm that is in
turn founded upon a loan program that was part of the New Deal's Rural Electrification Act of
1936 (REA). [FN16] This *706 model therefore sidesteps the rights-based scheme, resting upon
a more concrete foundation of measurable results (i.e., the number of the world's 2.2 billion
people who lack potable water that will obtain access to water versus the number that will not).
Part II provides a background for the remedy by establishing the magnitude of the problem
created by a lack of clean potable water and sanitation. As part of this discussion, the Article
examines the environmental burden of waterborne disease. Part III examines multinational
corporations' failed efforts at privatizing water systems in the developing world. Part IV explores
substitutes to privatization by corporate entities and the World Bank, including various
communities' efforts to privatize water systems that they use daily and partnerships between
communities and water utilities. Part V addresses the New Deal's Rural Electric Cooperatives
and assesses this model's potential use in resolving the current dearth of potable water in the
developing world. Finally, Part VI outlines the microcredit system and suggests how it can be
implemented to meet the goal of attaining potable water for the poor.
II. A World Wanting for Clean Water
A. The Enormity of the Problem
“Safe drinking water, sanitation and good hygiene are fundamental to health, survival,
growth and development.” [FN17] Accordingly, the World Health Organization (WHO) recently
observed that “[s]afe drinking water and basic sanitation are so obviously essential to health that
they risk being taken for granted.” [FN18] Unless people gain access to sources of drinking
water that are clean, safe, and reliable, “[e]fforts to prevent death from diarrhea or to reduce the
burden of such diseases as ascaris, dracunculiasis, hookworm, schistosomiasis and trachoma are
doomed to failure.” [FN19]
The problem is so pervasive that former South African President Thabo Mbeki recently
asserted that “[w]e have a duty to fight against *707 domestic and global apartheid in terms of
access to water.” [FN20] The United Nations (UN) similarly declared that “[o]vercoming the
crisis in water and sanitation is one of the great human development challenges of the early
twenty-first century. [In addition, s]uccess in addressing that challenge through a concerted
national and international response would act as a catalyst for progress in public health.” [FN21]
Unfortunately, the average person in the developing world will not realize the universal
availability of faucets or water piping at home “in the short--or even medium term.” [FN22]
Such persons will be bereft of safe water for the foreseeable future. [FN23] Of course, the
burdens of polluted water, lack of access to potable water, and basic sanitation deficiencies fall
4. on the poor. [FN24] They are not only much “less likely to have access to safe water and
sanitation, but . . . also less likely to have the financial and human resources to manage the
impact of this deprivation.” [FN25]
Additionally, the laws and policies of many states offer scant protection for the vulnerable.
[FN26] Even where laws providing state *708 support for destitute persons do exist, they are
seldom enforced. [FN27] The rural poor also have little or no access to the political process,
[FN28] and yet they comprise “[s]ome 80% of those who have no access to improved sources of
drinking water.” [FN29] In 2002, the WHO estimated that more than 1.1 billion people
worldwide lack clean drinking water and that “2.6 billion people have no sanitation.” [FN30]
The WHO also estimates that at least 1.8 million people die annually from diarrheal diseases,
including cholera, with children below the age of five, mostly in developing countries,
constituting 1.6 million (or 90%) of these deaths. [FN31] This figure is five times the number of
children who die annually from HIV/AIDS. [FN32] Of the deaths caused by diarrheal *709
disease, 88% are fully ascribed to unsafe water and deficient sanitation. [FN33]
It is for these reasons that the WHO declared in 2003 that providing water to the peoples of
the developing world was an urgent priority. Similarly, the UN adopted the Millennium
Development Goals, [FN34] which seek to halve the number of people who do not have access
to water by 2015. [FN35] Without any financial support, however, these programs have done
little. [FN36]
Finally, the “[l]ack of basic sanitation indirectly inhibits the learning abilities of millions of
school-aged children who are infested with intestinal worms transmitted through inadequate
sanitation facilities and poor hygiene.” [FN37] It also adds to a higher rate of wasteful and
unproductive time caused by adult illness and the need for parents to stay home to take care of
children. [FN38] If the world's poor are to climb out of their morass, the status quo must change.
One option for those who seek to aid those in need is privatization.
III. Privatization, Multinational Corporations, and the World Bank: An Uneasy Marriage
“Water privatization in the developing world has been met with public opposition and
conflict, as opponents argue *710 that water is a human right and that global corporations are
exploiting the needs of the world's poor for profit.” [FN39]
Privatization of water systems in developing countries has been taking place for
approximately a decade and a half. [FN40] The reaction to this phenomenon by the world's poor
is, for the most part, uniformly unfavorable. [FN41] A number of examples from around the
world provide insight into why this is the case.
A. Johannesburg, South Africa
In 1994, the World Bank required South Africa to privatize its water system as a condition to
lending money to the new Mandela government. [FN42] Johannesburg turned over its water
utilities to Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux (Suez), the French water conglomerate. [FN43] As soon as
Suez received its concession, it began installing high tech water meters. [FN44]
This privatization backfired on the people of South Africa. “Impoverished South Africans,
unable to afford to feed the meters, turned back to their little rivers of cholera for water, and the
government ha[d to] cut off water services to over ten million people [following] the introduction
of [these] new programs in 1996.” [FN45] The shutoffs also occurred when the poor in
townships outside of Johannesburg, such as Orange, could likewise not afford to pay their bills.
5. [FN46] Eventually, Suez's contract was terminated because the water it was supplying was
contaminated with diarrhea-causing bacteria. [FN47]
*711 B. Cochabamba, Bolivia
The story of Cochabamba, Bolivia, is quite similar. In 2000, under World Bank pressure, the
government of President Hugo Banzer granted a forty-year franchise to a private consortium,
Aguas del Tunari (owned by San Francisco-based Bechtel), to manage the municipal water
system. [FN48] Four months into the concession, water prices mushroomed by as much as
400%. [FN49] The entire set up not only forced workers to expend between 25% and 30% of
their incomes to pay Bechtel for water but also left 40% of Cochabamba's residents unconnected
to the municipal water system. [FN50]
As dissatisfaction grew with Bechtel, anti-privatization protests and riots exploded across the
country. [FN51] The police, sanctioned by the federal government, fought with the protesters,
causing hundreds of injuries and the death of a teenager. [FN52] Following this extreme
response, and with over $20 million in damage to private and public property, the government
was forced to terminate the contract. [FN53] In response, Bechtel and its partners sued the
Bolivian government for breach of contract, demanding $25 million in damages. [FN54] But in
the face of worldwide public condemnation, the consortium abandoned the suit. [FN55]
Additionally, Bolivia's privatization disaster gave birth to the Cochabamba Declaration, a
nonbinding proclamation that states in pertinent part that “[w]ater is a fundamental human right
and a public trust to be guarded by all levels of government, therefore, it should not be
commodified, privatized or traded for commercial purposes.” [FN56]
*712 C. Trade Liberalization and Water Scarcity
Vandana Shiva, the well-known Indian physicist and environmentalist, among many others,
shares the sentiments of the Cochabamba Declaration. Additionally, Dr. Shiva and her
colleagues and supporters assert that the World Bank's obligatory policies and the World Trade
Organization's rules on trade liberalization “are creating a sweeping culture of corporate states all
over the world.” [FN57] She also charges the World Bank with playing a major role in the
creation of water scarcity and with “transforming that scarcity into a market opportunity for
water corporations.” [FN58]
In fact, the Bank currently has outstanding commitments for water projects in the billions of
dollars. “From July 2008 to March 2009, 147 [of the Bank's] PPI [Private Participation in
Infrastructure] projects reached financial or contractual closure with investment commitments . .
. of US $55 billion in 46 developing countries.” [FN59] Many of the PPI projects are taking
place in South Asia, particularly in India, where World Bank mandated privatization is
widespread. [FN60] In fact, South Asia receives 20% of the Bank's loans. [FN61] Nevertheless,
the Bank has been widely criticized for its water project policies, many of which have damaged
the environment and caused local communities to suffer gravely. [FN62]
*713 1. New Delhi, India
The problems that India has experienced with World Bank-funded water projects are beyond
the scope of this Article. However, two examples are necessary to provide a working
understanding of the extent of the issue. The first is a Bank-funded project to provide water
service to the city of Delhi. Newspaper accounts report that the project “seems drenched in a
variety of questions. Lack of transparency in the functioning of a leading multilateral
6. organization, favoritism for specific private sector firms, and inadequate homework done by the
Delhi Jal Board (DJB) are only a few of the issues soaking the venture.” [FN63] Following a
presentation by Indian NGOs about the problems to the DJB's Chief Minister Sheila Dixit, she
expressed concern about the project's adverse impacts, including a
steep rise in tariffs, water inaccessibility to the poor, no guarantee of improvement in services
or of constant water supply [and the fact that Delhi's citizens] would also have to bear the brunt
of [increased] salaries of a total of about USD 25,000 per month which have been recommended
for the employees of the concerned water distribution companies. [FN64] Additionally, Ms.
Dixit told the NGOs that the project would be placed on hold, there would be more transparency,
and the project would not progress without public participation. [FN65] Nevertheless, “a
contrary reality emerged. This caused the controversy. The DJB seems to be simply
implementing the ‘orders' of the World Bank.” [FN66]
*714 2. Tamil Nadu
The second example is the Irrigated Agriculture Modernization and Water Bodies
Restoration and Management (IAMWARM) Project [FN67] in Tamil Nadu, a state in southern
India. It bears witness to India's enormous project expenditures and the concomitant
disillusionment in the outcome of these projects. It also demonstrates how these water projects
ultimately affect India's environment and communal life. Located in the state's capital district,
Pudukottai, the project involves tank upgrading supported by a $556 million World Bank loan.
[FN68]
Although IAMWARM was filled with great promise, the reality is very different. The
recently renovated tank bunds have developed serious cracks and have even crumbled. [FN69] In
response,
it was clear that there was a feeling of alienation from the project, and anger among the
farmer community as it directly affected their livelihoods. “I am not able to sow this year as the
work undertaken on the bund and sluice gate has diverted water away from my farm,” said one
farmer. [FN70]
These two examples demonstrate the problems with corporate privatization of water projects
and World Bank funding. They also point to one of the grave predicaments facing the world's
poor in their pursuit of potable water and proper sanitation: the commodification of water. The
Article next addresses that issue within the framework of the privatization of water resources.
D. Whisper Sweet Dollars in My Ear
The World Bank estimates the value of potential water markets at over $1 trillion. [FN71]
Following the collapse of the technology equities in 2000, Fortune Magazine recognized the
water sector as an exceptionally profitable industry for investors. [FN72] The World Bank's *715
requirement that states privatize their water delivery sectors in exchange for the Bank's loans has
guaranteed huge profits for private sector companies like Suez and Bechtel. [FN73] This
prospective revenue stream has apparently caused Monsanto, the former chemical giant and now
huge agrochemical company, to break into the water business. [FN74] It recently proclaimed that
because of the guaranteed returns, its investment cost opportunities will be lower and it “will be
well positioned via these businesses to profit even more significantly.” [FN75]
The following example from the Philippines demonstrates the potential harm of the World
Bank's privatization program. In 1997, the Philippine government, with backing from the World
Bank and private investors, privatized the municipal water supply of its capital, Manila, in an
7. effort to promote efficiency and improve service. [FN76] The privatization of that city's
municipal water system, despite its promise, reduced
the public's access to quality water. After privatization, water became less affordable.
Although water rates initially declined and services improved in the immediate aftermath of
privatization, both concessionaries requested 15% tariff increases from the regulatory body
within two years of the agreement. This was only the first of a series of rate increases, which
eventually left rates 500-700% higher nine years after privatization. For most residents of the
city, higher rates have resulted in a substantial portion of their income going to water and sewer
service. [FN77]
Critics assert that the history of corporate privatization of water utilities is dismal, and one
can see why from Manila's experience. Additionally, once water and/or the system of distribution
and delivery are privatized, the costs for local consumers become *716 prohibitive [FN78] and
distribution networks are not upgraded. [FN79] A report authored by the Asian Development
Bank recently identified an example of this phenomenon, finding that, as of 2004, only 58% of
Manila's population was connected to the city's water system. [FN80] Moreover, the city's sewer
service is poorly managed and in a ghastly state of affairs. [FN81] In fact, no improvements were
made to the entire distribution network during the privatized period. [FN82] In 2003, a World
Bank study reported that water and sewer access in Manila was among the worst in the major
Asian cities, second only to Jakarta. [FN83]
Nevertheless, water privatization continues unabated because “[water] privatization is a big
business; revenue from the global trade in water amounts to more than US $800 billion
annually.” [FN84] Other examples of profiteering by international corporations include World
Bank-driven privatization programs in Chile, where the Bank imposed a loan condition to
guarantee a 33% profit margin to the French company Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux. [FN85]
Indeed, privatization has an even more pernicious side. It affects not only “people's
democratic right to water . . . [but also] . . . the livelihoods and employment rights of those who
work in municipalities and local water and sanitation systems.” [FN86] For example, when the
World Bank forced Ghana to privatize the water system of its capital city, Accra, the system's
4,500 existing employees were fired, and the private company brought in its own people. [FN87]
*717 As so often happens in the developing world, the employees [FN88] who were fired
were members of Ghana's middle class and played a significant role in the local economy. Once
any severance pay they may receive has been exhausted, many of the system's previous
employees, now turned out and jobless, will likely descend into poverty and require government
assistance to make ends meet. As a consequence of the World Bank's loans, the Ghanaian
government was not only forced to pay private companies for managing Accra's water system
and delivering that water at an inflated price, but it was also burdened with another obligation:
supporting previously employed individuals. Moreover,
the prospect of privatisation has [already] driven up consumer water costs in Ghana. Recent
IMF and World Bank loan conditions mandated a 95 percent hike in water fees in May 2001 and
additional price hikes are planned. Although the minimum wage has just been raised to 5,000
cedis a day, this amount can hardly sustain the average family. (One U.S. dollar exchanges for
7,000 cedis.) [FN89] The poor in the developing world cannot absorb such significant increases.
It is why they rebel against mammoth rate escalations for *718 water provisions. And it is also
why corporate water companies are routinely ousted from developing states.
IV. Exploring Alternatives
8. A. The Case for Community Privatization
Corporate efforts at privatization of water systems have thus far been a complete and utter
failure. Nevertheless, many critics of water utility privatization in Manila and elsewhere concede
that, for developing countries, private capital is required. [FN90] These investments are needed
because municipal water systems in developing countries lack the funds to extend piping and
connections. [FN91] A middle ground must be sought. For example, municipal water utilities
might seek funding and operational expertise from investors who are interested more in long-
term, stable opportunities and who do not expect returns greater than 5% to 6% per annum. This
type of investor differs from the large corporate conglomerates that seek short-term, guaranteed
high rates of return (i.e., 20% to 30% per annum) and, therefore, steeply raise rates. The Article
next discusses this middle ground.
B. Surefootedness in a Middle Ground: Alternatives to Corporate Privatization [FN92]
Nature abhors a vacuum. Within the vacuum caused by the failure of multinational
corporations, a number of alternatives have developed. Two options that have succeeded in
supplying potable water to the poor in Ghana and South Africa are addressed next. Both have
elements of community cooperation and are based on small-scale or community-wide
privatization approaches.
1. Savelugu's Partnership
The Ghanaian alternative involves the creation of a rural village's “public-community
partnership.” This entity was formed at *719 about the same time that the decision to privatize
water in Accra was made. As Accra's post-corporate privatization period ushered in the doubling
of water prices, the small town of Savelugu in northern Ghana took a decidedly different route.
The town's inhabitants formed a “public-community partnership,” where the community
collectively buys water from the Ghana Water Company, Ltd. and takes responsibility for
payment collections and minor repairs. [FN93] The community also enacted rules to protect its
most vulnerable members and set the price at which water is sold to its constituents. [FN94] This
partnership has reduced to 15% the quantity of water that is unaccounted for through poor
management, as compared with Ghana's average of 50%. [FN95] In addition, the community has
a collection and payment record of 100%, as compared to 60% in other areas that the Ghana
Water Company serves. [FN96]
2. Cato Crest's Standpipes
Another successful community-based endeavor occurred in Cato Crest, an informal
settlement on the outskirts of Durban, South Africa: [FN97]
[I]nstalling pipes for traditional, in-home water supply would have cost too much, so a
system of communal standpipes and private water tanks was introduced instead. At the
standpipes, everyone has access to water and pays by the bucket, and there is also an option of
installing private ground tanks instead. Each month, the tank owner pays for water in advance,
and each day the tank is refilled. If the tank owner cannot pay a full month in advance, his tank is
not refilled, but he always has access to the standpipes. [FN98]
The Savelugu-Ghana Water Company Partnership and Cato Crest's Standpipe systems treat
water as a commons--not as a corporate commodity. The commons approach to water
9. “ownership” fits the idea that access to potable water should be a human right. Both examples
also possess elements of this Article's proposal.
*720 V. A Proven Model for Success: The New Deal's Rural Electric Cooperatives
This Article's proposed model has its historical roots in President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt's New Deal. During that era, rural communities lacked electricity because for-profit
electric companies were convinced that running power lines to these potential customers was
unprofitable. [FN99] By the 1930s, almost 90% of urban inhabitants had electricity. [FN100]
However, only 10% of rural dwellers were as fortunate. [FN101] Why did such a lopsided
system exist? For the same reason that the poor in today's developing world do not have water:
there was a market failure in the provision of electric power. “Private utility companies, who
supplied electric power to most of the nation's consumers, argued that it was too expensive to
string electric power lines to isolated rural farmsteads” and that, in any case, most farmers “were
too poor to afford electricity.” [FN102]
The lack of available electricity in rural areas meant that their economies were exclusively
and utterly dependent on agriculture. [FN103] Consequently, manufacturing and other businesses
unrelated to farming favored urban locations where electricity was available and easily acquired.
[FN104] For many years, power companies continued to disregard the rural areas of the nation--
except where conditions assured easy and early profit. [FN105]
President Roosevelt, however, felt that electricity was a basic necessity that had to be
provided to everyone. Hence, as part the New Deal, he established a new agency, the Rural
Electrification *721 Administration (REA). The REA's mandate was to fund independently
formed electric cooperatives in rural America. [FN106]
A. The Rural Electrification Administration: The Early Years
Realizing that the privately owned power sector would not connect farmers to electricity, the
federal government took it upon itself to solve the lack of electricity in rural America. Given the
depth of the problem and his keen eye towards practical solutions, President Roosevelt
proclaimed that “[e]lectricity is a modern necessity . . . and ought to be found in every . . . part of
the United States.” [FN107] Therefore, one of the Roosevelt Administration's inaugural acts in
its efforts to supply electric power to America's rural inhabitants was the Tennessee Valley
Authority Act of 1933 (TVAA). [FN108] The Act authorized the TVA Board to construct
transmission lines to serve “farms and small villages that are not otherwise supplied with
electricity at reasonable rates.” [FN109]
B. The Failure of the Market and Government Intervention
The Roosevelt Administration understood that if private utilities would not or could not
supply electricity to the rural population, government would have to assume that duty. Hence, in
1933, President Roosevelt, with congressional assent, incorporated rural electrification into the
Public Works Administration (PWA). [FN110] The *722 PWA was a part of the National
Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), which was superseded in 1936 by the REA. [FN111]
As the REA grew, one of its first acts was the initiation, in 1937, of a lending program.
[FN112] In essence, the government recognized that private utility companies would not bring
electricity to rural areas and thus passed the Act to bring electricity to those areas, such as the
10. Tennessee Valley, and it launched the lending program to make funds available to rural residents
who were not connected to the grid. In a 1935 article addressing the loan program entitled
“Electrifying the Countryside,” Morris Cooke, the head of the REA, observed that
[i]n addition to paying for the energy he used, the farmer was expected to advance to the
power company most or all of the costs of construction. Since the utility company ideas as to
what constituted sound rural lines have been rather fancy, such costs were prohibitive for most
farmers. [FN113] REA's loans were thus aimed at remedying the financial onus required by
private utilities before they would electrify rural areas.
“Even as late as July 1935, a group of utility company executives wrote a report in which
they claimed that, in light of their earlier extensive research work, ‘there are very few farms
requiring electricity for major farm operations that are not now served.”’ [FN114] That statement
ultimately would come to haunt the for-profit electric industry when the REA and the rural
electric cooperatives, of which there are more than 900 today, confirmed the falsity of the view
that most farms requiring electricity were being served. [FN115] Rural electrification was rooted
in the conviction that an affordable supply of electricity would improve the standard of living
and the economic viability of the farm. Indeed, by 1939, the REA funded and helped *723
“establish 417 rural electric cooperatives, which served over 288,000 households.” [FN116]
Hence, the number of rural households with electricity increased to 25%, from 10% in 1933.
[FN117]
C. The Stimulation of Supply and Demand
As the number of rural households with electricity increased, an interesting phenomenon
took place: these farmers required more energy than city dwellers. [FN118] Moreover, when
rural residents finally managed to get connected to the power grid, they also began purchasing
refrigerators, stoves, and other electric appliances. [FN119] These sales helped spur local
economies by increasing business for local merchants. [FN120] The demand for more electricity
also served to defray some of the added costs of stringing power lines across the countryside.
[FN121]
Furthermore, to help support this thriving segment of the local economy, the TVA
established the Electric Home and Farm Authority (EHFA). [FN122] The EHFA's mission was
to extend low interest credit to farmers for the purpose of purchasing major electric appliances
like electric ranges, refrigerators, and water heaters at reasonable prices. [FN123] Thus, the
EHFA catalyzed an increase in the manufacture *724 and distribution of major appliances.
[FN124] Indeed, the program was so successful that these appliances were sold at local electric
cooperatives and local power companies. [FN125]
Over the next few decades, the number of rural cooperatives doubled and the number of
consumers tripled. [FN126] Consequently, the number of rural consumers who were connected
to and served by the rural electric system grew at an exponential rate. By 1953, over 90% of the
farms across the United States were connected. [FN127] Today, that number has increased to
above 99%. [FN128] After almost sixty years of lighting up rural America, the REA was
abolished in 1994 in a dramatic overhaul of the Department of Agriculture that created the Rural
Utilities Service (RUS) to fill the gap that the REA's elimination left. [FN129] Nevertheless,
“[t]he electric loan programs [and the cooperatives] continue to operate, much as they did under
REA.” [FN130]
One other key fact about Morris Cooke and the REA is critical to this history. The REA
diverged from every other New Deal program “in that it did not involve much federal spending
11. beyond the wages of its staff. Instead it was a loan program, a sort of ‘government capitalism.’
The REA extended low-interest loans and staff experts to cooperatives created by rural people
who wanted electricity.” [FN131] And even after the disappearance of the background
framework, cooperatives all across the nation are still producing electricity. [FN132] In addition,
since its inception some seventy-five years ago, the default rate on any of the funds that the
federal government loaned to these cooperatives has been negligible (less than 1%). [FN133]
*725 VI. Application to Water
The history of the REA demonstrates that destitute individuals can be helped out of their dire
situations where assistance is provided. This means, however, that financial and expert resources
must be within their reach. That is the current dilemma facing those without water. There are no
available sources of capital to build the needed water infrastructure for the estimated 1.1 billion
people worldwide that lack clean drinking water. [FN134]
Furthermore, given how they are currently organized, neither the UN nor the numerous
NGOs have the capital to fund construction of entire systems in the thousands of villages across
the world that require potable water. [FN135] Moreover, the LDCs and many other
underdeveloped countries do not have the funds themselves, or else many of them would have
already provided utility services to their residents. [FN136] Similarly, international organizations
such as the UN Development Programme (UNDP) have not focused their financial resources on
the problem of the poor's lack of access to water and would be required to redirect funds from
their current programs in order to attempt even a small-scale test project. [FN137] Otherwise, it
is *726 fair to assume that they would have spent the money (no more than $200-$1,000) to drill
a well and lay stand pipes. [FN138]
Likewise, national aid programs, such as the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID), also appear to be uninterested in providing potable water to the forty-
three nations it assists in Sub-Saharan Africa. [FN139]
A. Raising the Capital to Drill Water Wells
Private sources of capital must be mobilized to provide loan programs similar to the REA's if
potable water is to be provided to the world's poor. One vigorous and successful method of
marshalling private-sourced capital that can be used to fund this type of project is *727 the use of
microloans. [FN140] This kind of capital generation has already established itself as an
exceptionally robust means of pulling the poor out of poverty. [FN141] Indeed, Bangladeshi
economist Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for
pioneering a new type of banking: microcredit. [FN142] Professor Yunus defines microcredit, or
Grameencredit, as follows:
a) It promotes credit as a human right.
b) Its mission is to help the poor families to help themselves to overcome poverty. It is
targeted to the poor, particularly poor women.
c) [The m]ost distinctive feature of Grameencredit is that it is not based on any collateral, or
legally enforceable contracts. It is based on “trust”, not on legal procedures and system[s].
d) It is offered for creating self-employment for income-generating activities and housing for
the poor, as opposed to consumption.
e) It was initiated as a challenge to the conventional banking which rejected the poor by
classifying them to be “not creditworthy” . As a result it rejected the basic methodology of the
12. conventional banking and created its own methodology. [FN143] Grameencredit's elements have
allowed Yunus and GrameenBank to “provide[] over $2.5 billion in micro-loans” to 7.5 million
Bangladeshis, with an average loan of approximately $150 and a repayment rate of 98%, which
is on par with the repayment rate for REA loans. [FN144] The Grameen Bank Project (Grameen
means “rural” or *728 “village” in the Bangla language) was developed with numerous
objectives, including the following:
-to offer a formal banking system to poor Bangladeshi men and women;
-to eradicate local money lenders' manipulation of poor villagers; and
-to create an opportunity for self-employment for Bangladesh's unemployed rural poor.
[FN145] The bulk (97%) of the microloans have been extended to women or to women's
enterprises. [FN146]
B. The Inner-Workings of the Microcredit System
Grameen Bank's loan process is an uncomplicated, no collateral, trust-based financial
agreement. [FN147] It involves no legal documents--primarily because most of Grameen's
borrowers are illiterate. [FN148] Consequently, the bank employs and relies upon “positive
incentives of continued access to credit and other support to ensure repayments.” [FN149] In
fact, Grameen has yet to use either lawyers or the courts to force its borrowers to repay their
loans. [FN150]
When a likely borrower seeks a loan, she is required to establish a unit of five other
borrowers from her neighborhood--or to join such a group of borrowers--and agree to meet with
these other women on a weekly basis. [FN151] The theory behind this grouping is quite novel.
First, each member of the group must repay her individual loan before any other group member
can apply for a subsequent loan. [FN152] Second, the women must work together to ensure that
each of their enterprises is successful enough so that each woman repays her individual loans
while also pressuring each other to remain sufficiently profitable to repay their loans.
*729 “Grameen's borrowers are also required to maintain a regular savings” account with the
bank. [FN153] Indeed, both the bank's borrowers and their “nonborrowing neighbors as a group
have $150 in savings for every $100 in loans outstanding.” [FN154] Grameen's current funds are
thus composed of its poor customers' savings. [FN155] And most importantly, the bank has been
profitable for twenty-two years of its twenty-five year history, [FN156] demonstrating how
successful the microcredit concept is. The next subpart addresses the issue of how to apply the
microcredit system to the problem at hand.
C. Convergence
Grameen's success with very small amounts of money demonstrates that, for North
Americans or Europeans, the amount of seed money is trivial. Loaning $100 to a villager under
the conditions discussed above is almost no gamble at all. It amounts to twenty-seven cents per
day over the period of one year. Matches between donor and donee can be made over the internet
or via a nonprofit. “The benefactors, in many cases, are ordinary individuals inspired by a
movement that is reshaping philanthropy and making it as accessible as the click of a mouse or a
visit to a house party.” [FN157]
For example, a recent newspaper article noted that “[a] Peruvian widow borrowed $64 and
bought a few pigs. For $55, a villager in Ghana went into the mineral-water trade. A mother of
nine in Guatemala upgraded her grocery store with $250.” [FN158] Microcredit organizations
13. such as NamasteDirect, [FN159] Kiva.org, [FN160] and Microcredit Summit Campaign [FN161]
have raised millions of dollars from hundreds of thousands of individual lenders. [FN162]
*730 D. Deploying Experts
Once sources of capital have been located, the next step is to tap the well drilling community.
A corps of retired and volunteer well drillers can be assembled to teach members of a particular
region how to drill wells. This learned local cadre would then fan out to other villages to impart
their knowledge of boring wells.
The incentive for the various tribes and other groups to work together would be that the
initial group could not have wells drilled in its village until it taught and helped at least one
village or group to drill wells. This requirement would then be imposed on each subsequent
group. This motivational tool is akin to Grameen Bank's requirements that each borrower not
borrow until she gathers or joins a group of five and that no further loans be granted until every
member of the group has repaid her loan.
This Article envisions that this system would be introduced in every LDC and soon become
self-sustaining. Repayment of the loans would take place once each village had a standpipe that
would provide potable water to the village. At that point, the women and children in each village
who do the back-breaking work of fetching water would have more time to devote to either
starting or expanding businesses and going to school. The men would be required to contribute.
Additionally, since waterborne diseases would decrease dramatically as a consequence of the
new supply of potable water, illnesses would also diminish significantly, thereby making the
population healthier and more productive. [FN163]
Since each village already has a governance structure (e.g., a chief or other executive leader
and possibly a governing council), this structure can be employed to gather the repayment funds
and decide what type(s) of businesses would best suit the village's members. [FN164] Thus, the
existing institutional link between the individuals in each *731 village and those embedded
among disparate villages would drive the institutional structure for repayment and business
development.
As each village begins to develop, it can then branch out to provide proper sanitation and
educational opportunities for children, since children would not need to stay home to help with
retrieving water and watering gardens. Additionally, village councils would be able to provide
other amenities to villagers, just as rural farmers in the New Deal era were able to purchase
appliances.
VII. Conclusion
If legal tools are to benefit the world's poor and disenfranchised, they cannot be void due to a
perceived impossibility of implementation. This is the problem with the purported human right to
water. It is quixotic. International lawyers thus must ferret out the means to provide those who
have little or no access to potable water and proper sanitation with a suite of meaningful and
workable legal options. If they do not, then paper tigers will continue to fill law reviews without
ameliorating the problem.
The tools proposed here, including the use of microcredit loans and the implementation of a
mechanism such as REA's loan program, will aid the 2.2 billion people in the world who lack
potable water and proper sanitation. Both of these approaches have been tested across several
14. decades, and they have proven capable of solving the problems facing the disenfranchised
persons of the world.
[FNa1]. Faculty of Law, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; J.D. Tulane; LL.M. Georgetown;
LL.D. Hebrew University; Kornfeld.itzchak@mail.huji.ac.il. I am grateful to Benjamin E.
Berkman, Lawrence Gostin, and Yuval Shany for their thought provoking insights as well as for
their comments on previous drafts. I am also indebted to the attendees of the Georgetown Health
and Human Rights Law Forum for their helpful comments and observations. Thanks to the
editors of the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law. Of course, all errors are attributable
solely to the Author.
[FN1]. Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 4:8 (37A) (English translation provided by Author).
[FN2]. Stephen C. McCaffrey, A Human Right to Water: Domestic and International
Implications, 5 Geo. Int'l Envtl. L. Rev. 1, 5-8 (1992).
[FN3]. These noble efforts should be treated with high regard. The following documents make
up the principal scholarship on the subject. See, e.g., John Scanlon et al., Water as a Human
Right? (2004); Robert Adler, Freshwater: Sustaining Use by Protecting Ecosystems, 39 Envtl. L.
Rep. News & Analysis 10309 (2009); Joseph Dellapenna, A Human Right to Water: An Ethical
Position or a Realizable Goal ?, in Reconciling Human Existence with Ecological Integrity, 183
(Laura Westra et al. eds., 2008); Peter H. Gleick, The Human Right to Water, 1 Water Pol'y 487
(1999); Amy Hardberger, Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Water: Evaluating Water as a Human
Right and the Duties and Obligations it Creates, 4 Nw. U. J. Int'l Hum. Rts. 331 (2005); Ling-
Yee Huang, Not Just another Drop in the Human Rights Bucket: The Legal Significance of a
Codified Human Right to Water, 20 Fla. J. Int'l L. 353 (2008); Benjamin W. Cramer, Note, The
Human Right to Information, the Environment and Information About the Environment: From
the Universal Declaration to the Aarhus Convention, 14 Comm. L. & Pol'y 73 (2009); Melina
Williams, Note, Privatization and the Human Right to Water: Challenges for the New Century,
28 Mich. J. Int'l L. 469 (2007); see also Sumudu Atapattu, The Right to a Healthy Life or the
Right to Die Polluted?: The Emergence of a Human Right to a Healthy Environment Under
International Law, 16 Tul. Envtl. L.J. 65, 82-83 (2002); Karen Kong, The Right to Food: A
Right-Based Approach to Hunger and Social Inequality, 32 Suffolk Transnat'l L. Rev. 525, 536
(2009).
[FN4]. U.N. Econ. & Soc. Council [ECOSOC], Comm'n on Econ., Soc. & Cultural Rights,
General Comment No. 15: The Right to Water (Arts. 11 and 12 of the International Covenant on
Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights), P 1, U.N. Doc. E/C.12/2002/11 (Jan. 20, 2003); see also
Soc. & Econ. Rights Action Centre [SERAC] v. Nigeria, Afr. Comm'n Human & Peoples'
Rights, Comm. No. 155/96, P 56 (2001); Aoife Nolan, Addressing Economic and Social Rights
Violations by Non-State Actors Through the Role of the State: A Comparison of Regional
Approaches to the ‘Obligation to Protect,’ 9 Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 225, 241 (2009) (discussing the
SERAC decision).
[FN5]. In Joost Pauwelyn, Optimal Protection of International Law: Navigating Between
European Absolutism and American Voluntarism (2008), Paulwelyn distinguishes between
“rights” and “entitlements.” Pauwelyn defines a right as corresponding “to just one type of
15. entitlement (namely those protected by a so-called property rule), [noting that] the broader term
entitlements was needed to avoid confusion and to encapsulate not just one but all types of
entitlements.” Id. at 5-6 n.3; International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
993 U.N.T.S. 3 G.A. Res. 2200A (XXI), U.N. Doc. A/6316 (Dec. 16, 1966) [hereinafter
ICESCR].
[FN6]. ICESCR, supra note 5.
[FN7]. See, for example, Johannesburg v. Mazibuko 2009 (8) SA 1 (SA) at P 1 (S. Afr.), where
the court upheld the right of the poor plaintiffs-residents to water in the Phiri Township in
Johannesburg. The court found that Articles 11 and 12 of the ICESCR absolutely recognize the
right to an adequate standard of living and continued improvement, and the right to enjoy the
highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. Id. P 17.
[FN8]. See Amy Hardberger, Whose Job is it Anyway?: Governmental Obligations Created by
the Human Right to Water, 41 Tex. Int'l L.J. 533, 563-65 (2006) (suggesting the rarity of
enforcement of water rights).
[FN9]. The Least Developed Countries (LDCs) include forty-nine of the poorest and weakest
counties in the world. U.N. Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries,
Landlocked Developing Countries, and Small Island Developing States [UN-OHRLLS], Least
Developed Countries--Country Profiles, http://www.unohrlls.org/en/ldc/related/62/ (last visited
Apr. 2, 2010). For the criteria for identifying LDCs, see UN-OHRILLS, The Criteria for the
Identification of the LDCs, 2005, http:// www.un.org/special-rep/ohrlls/ldc/ldc%20criteria.htm
(last visited Apr. 2, 2010).
In its latest triennial review of the list of LDCs in 2003, the Economic and Social Council of
the United Nations used the following three criteria, as proposed by the Committee for
Development Policy (CDP), for the identification of the LDCs:
• a low-income criterion, based on a three-year average estimate of the gross national income
(GNI) per capita (under $750 for inclusion, above $900 for graduation);
• a human resource weakness criterion, involving a composite Human Assets Index (HAI)
based on indicators of: (a) nutrition; (b) health; (c) education; and (d) adult literacy; and
• an economic vulnerability criterion, involving a composite Economic Vulnerability Index
(EVI) based on indicators of: (a) the instability of agricultural production; (b) the instability of
exports of goods and services; (c) the economic importance of non-traditional activities (share of
manufacturing and modern services in GDP); (d) merchandise export concentration; and (e) the
handicap of economic smallness (as measured through the population in logarithm); and the
percentage of population displaced by natural disasters.
Id.
[FN10]. See Hardberger, supra note 8, at 563 (discussing the difficulty of enforcing water rights).
[FN11]. The Latin term for the doctrine is ubi jus ibi remedium. See generally, United States v.
Pena-Gonzalez, 62 F. Supp. 2d 358, 365 (D. P.R. 1999) (“We begin with a fundamental principle
of our jurisprudence, ubi jus ibi remedium--where there is a right there is a remedy. This
axiomatic principle forms the bedrock of our system of justice.”); Justice Hugh O'Flaherty,
16. Speech, Ubi Jus Ibi Remedium (Otherwise: “Put up the Defendant!”), 45 Loy. L. Rev. 527, 531
(1999) (“[T]he remedial base of the common law--the law of tort--protects only specified
interests. Unless one could bring one's complaint within the framework of an established
category or cause of action, one had no redress at law.”); Tracy A. Thomas, Ubi Jus, Ibi
Remedium: The Fundamental Right to a Remedy Under Due Process, 41 San Diego L. Rev.
1633, 1636-37 (2004) (“Stated simply: Ubi jus, ibi remedium. Where there's a right, there must
be a remedy.”); Heather J. Hanna & Alan G. Harding, Comment, General Law Division: Ubi Jus
Ibi Remedium--For the Violation of Every Right, There Must Be a Remedy: The Supreme
Court's Refusal to Use the Bivens Remedy in Wilkie v. Robbins, 8 Wyo. L. Rev. 193, 193-94
(2008) (“It is well established that ‘[t]he very essence of civil liberty certainly consists in the
right of every individual to claim the protection of the laws, whenever, he receives an injury.”’
(quoting Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137, 163 (1803)).
Accordingly, “[t]here must always be an accessible forum in which a complainant has oyer
and terminer for any” plea of wrongdoing; where such a venue is lacking or nonexistent one can
not make her plea. Principles of Constitutional Construction,
http://www.constitution.org/cons/prin_cons.htm (last visited Apr. 2, 2010).
[FN12]. Joseph Vining, From Newton's Sleep 34 (1995).
[FN13]. Douglas A. Kysar, Sustainable Development and Private Global Governance, 83 Tex. L.
Rev. 2109, 2166 n.169 (2005).
[FN14]. See, e.g., William Screiber, Realizing the Right to Water in International Investment
Law: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Bit Obligations, 48 Nat. Resources J. 431 (2008) (failing
to address the privatization of water utilities); Violeta Petrova, Note, At the Frontiers of the Rush
for Blue Gold: Water Privatization and the Human Right to Water, 21 Brook. J. Int'l L. 577
(2006) (same).
[FN15]. Although, to date, privatization efforts by multi-national water companies have failed--
principally because they have sought to gouge the poor-- this proposal takes another approach.
On the issue of corporate privatization, see discussion infra Part III.
[FN16]. Rural Electrification Act of 1936, Pub. L. No. 74-604, 49 Stat. 1363 (codified as
amended at 7 U.S.C. § 901 (1936)). For a fuller discussion of the Rural Electrification Act, see
generally Melissa A. Jamison, Rural Electric Cooperatives: A Model for Indigenous Peoples'
Permanent Sovereignty Over Their Natural Resources, 12 Tulsa J. Comp. & Int'l L. 401, 440-46
(2005); Richard P. Keck, Reevaluating the Rural Electrification Administration: A New Deal for
the Taxpayer, 16 Envtl. L. 39 (1985).
[FN17]. World Health Org. [WHO] & U.N. Children's Fund [UNICEF], Meeting the MDG
Drinking Water and Sanitation Target: The Urban and Rural Challenge of the Decade 2 (2006),
available at http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_ health/monitoring/jmpfinal.pdf.
[FN18]. Id.
[FN19]. Id. For more about these diseases, see Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
17. [CDC], Parasitic Diseases--Index of Parasitic Diseases,
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/ (last visited Apr. 2, 2010); World Health Organization
[WHO], Trachoma, http://www.who.int/topics/trachoma/en/ (last visited Apr. 2, 2010).
[FN20]. Thabo Mbeki, S. Afr. President, Address at the Launch of the U.N. Development
Programme 2006 Human Development Report (Nov. 9, 2006), available at
http://www.dfa.gov.za/docs/speeches/2006/mbek1109.htm.
[FN21]. United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 2006--Beyond
Scarcity: Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crisis1 (2006) (emphasis added).
[FN22]. World Health Org. [WHO], The Right to Water 15 (2003), available at
http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/rightowater/en.
[FN23]. See, e.g., United Nations Development Programme, Millennium Development Goals--
Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability, http:// www.undp.org/mdg/goal7.shtml (last visited
Apr. 2, 2010) (“Target 7c: Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to
safe drinking water and basic sanitation”) [hereinafter MDG Goal 7]; see also U.N. Dep't of
Econ. & Soc. Affairs, Millennium Development Goals Report 2007, at 7 (2007) (discussing the
progress towards halving, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less
than one dollar a day).
[FN24]. U.N. World Water Assessment Programme, The United Nations World Water
Development Report 3: Water in a Changing World 3 (2009) (“An estimated 90% of the 3 billion
people who are expected to be added to the population by 2050 will be in developing countries,
many in regions where the current population does not have sustainable access to safe drinking
water and adequate sanitation.”).
[FN25]. WHO, supra note 22, at 22.
[FN26]. See, e.g., Erik B. Bluemel, The Implications of Formulating a Human Right to Water,
31 Ecology L.Q. 957, 980 (2004) (noting that the costs of water resources in South Africa are
disproportionately distributed to the poor); Kirk Herbertson & David Hunter, Sustainable
Energy: Emerging Standards for Sustainable Finance of the Energy Sector, 7 Sustainable Dev. L.
& Pol'y 4, 4 (2007) (“[M]any energy-related projects have been scrutinized (and in some cases
rejected) for their contributions to severe environmental degradation, involuntary resettlement of
poor and marginalized communities, or the inequitable allocation of project benefits and costs.”);
Christine A. Klein, On Integrity: Some Considerations for Water Law, 56 Ala. L. Rev. 1009,
1056 (2005) (“[M]arkets, if not carefully devised and regulated, may place an inequitable burden
upon the poor and people of color.”); Maria Merritt, Bioethics, Philosophy, and Global Health, 7
Yale J. Health Pol'y L. & Ethics 273, 299 (2007) (“The distribution of these burdens between
affluent and poor populations is tremendously inequitable.”).
[FN27]. See Hardberger, supra note 8, at 563.
[FN28]. See, e.g., James [Sa'ke'j] Youngblood Henderson, Dialogical Governance: A
18. Mechanism of Constitutional Governance, 72 Saskatchewan L. Rev. 29, 46 (2009) (“groups in
society [that] are typically shut out of the political process--the poor, the powerless, racial
minorities, accused criminals”); Amy Sinden, In Defense of Absolutes: Combating the Politics of
Power in Environmental Law, 90 Iowa L. Rev. 1405, 1468-69 (2005) (“[T]he discrete-and-
insular-minorities formulation, taken literally, leaves out many of the groups that are in fact most
powerless in the political process. The poor, for example, are diffuse rather than insular....”);
David Cole, Book Review, The Poverty of Posner's Pragmatism: Balancing Away Liberty after
9/11, 59 Stan. L. Rev. 1735, 1744 (2007) (“Constitutional law, in other words, does not leave the
question of ethnic profiling to the political process, precisely because the political process has
historically done such a poor job of ensuring equity for members of racial minority groups.”).
[FN29]. Likewise,
[t]he number of people without access to improved water sources in 2000 was a staggering
1.1 billion globally. The number of urban dwellers without access to these services reached 157
million, which represents an increase of 44 million over the comparable figure in 1990. The
situation with global sanitation is much worse, with almost three times as many people denied
even minimal sanitation facilities.
WHO, supra note 22, at 21-22.
[FN30]. Imogen Foulkes, Water Access Progress ‘Too Slow,’ BBC News, Sept. 5, 2006,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/5317376.stm.
[FN31]. See, e.g., World Health Organization [WHO], Diarrhoeal Diseases,
http://www.who.int/vaccine_research/diseases/diarrhoeal/en/ (last visited Apr. 2, 2010).
Diarrhoeal diseases represent a major health problem in developing countries....Conservative
estimates place the global death toll from diarrhoeal diseases at about two million deaths per year
(1.7-2.5 million deaths), ranking third among all causes of infectious disease deaths worldwide.
Most of these deaths occur in children under five years of age.
Id.
[FN32]. Lack of Clean Water Kills 2M Children a Year: UN Report, ABC News, Nov. 10, 2006,
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200611/s1785310.htm.
[FN33]. World Health Organization [WHO], Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Links to Health--
Facts and Figures Updated November 2004, http://www.who.int/water_
sanitation_health/publications/facts2004/en/index.html (last visited Apr. 2, 2010). In fact, WHO
Director-General Dr. Lee Jong-Wook stated:
Water and Sanitation is one of the primary drivers of public health. I often refer to it as
‘Health 101,’ which means that once we can secure access to clean water and to adequate
sanitation facilities for all people, irrespective of the difference in their living conditions, a huge
battle against all kinds of diseases will be won.
Id.
[FN34]. MDG Goal 7, supra note 23.
[FN35]. Id.
19. [FN36]. See, e.g., Michael Clemens & Todd Moss, What's Wrong with the Millennium
Development Goals? 2 (2005), available at http:// www.cgdev.org/files/3940_file_WWMGD.pdf
(indicating that the Millennium Development Goals have not been achieved because of the need
for more financial aid, but also asserting that there are diminishing returns to financial aid).
[FN37]. WHO & UNICEF, supra note 17, at 2.
[FN38]. UNICEF, Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene--Links to Health Education and Development,
http://www.unicef.org/wash/index_healthandeducation.html (last visited Apr. 2, 2010) (“Poor
water and sanitation exact a heavy economic cost in terms of health spending, loss of
productivity and labour diversion.”).
[FN39]. Craig Anthony Arnold, Water Privatization Trends in the United States: Human Rights,
National Security, and Public Stewardship, 33 Wm. & Mary Envtl. L. & Pol'y Rev. 785, 798
(2009).
[FN40]. Amy K. Miller, Note, Blue Rush: Is an International Privatization Agreement a Viable
Solution for Developing Countries in the Face of an Impending World Water Crisis?, 16 Ind.
Int'l & Comp. L. Rev. 217, 218 (2005).
[FN41]. Arnold, supra note 39, at 798.
[FN42]. See Maude Barlow, The World's Water: A Human Right or a Corporate Good?, in
Whose Water is it? 25, 27 (Bernadette McDonald & Douglas Jehl eds., 2003) (stating that the
World Bank “influenced” South Africa to privatize many of its water services).
[FN43]. Id. at 27.
[FN44]. Id.
[FN45]. Id. (emphasis added).
[FN46]. Id. at 26-27.
[FN47]. Id.; European Commission Aid in Sub-Saharan Africa, Opportunities for Suez?,
http://archive.corporateeurope.org/suezinafrica.html (last visited Apr. 2, 2010).
[FN48]. On the Cochabamba water privatization saga, see generally James Salzman, Thirst: A
Short History of Drinking Water, 18 Yale J. L. & Human. 94, 95-96 (2006); Timothy O'Neill,
Note, Water and Freedom: The Privatization of Water and Its Implications for Democracy and
Human Rights in the Developing World, 17 Colo. J. Int'l Envtl. L. & Pol'y 357, 360 (2006);
Rachel Welch, Comment, And Not a Drop to Drink: Water Privatization, Pseudo-Sovereignty,
and the Female Burden, 15 Tul. J. Int'l & Comp. L. 311, 313, 315-16 (2006). For Bechtel
Corporation's version of the incident, see Bechtel Perspective on the Aguas Del Tunari Water
Concession in Cochabamba, Bolivia, Bechtel.com, Mar. 16, 2005,
20. http://www.bechtel.com/assets/ files/PDF/Cochabambafacts0305.pdf.
[FN49]. See O'Neill, supra note 48, at 367 (describing mushrooming water prices shortly after
the concession).
[FN50]. Id. at 367-68; Salzman, supra note 48, at 94.
[FN51]. O'Neill, supra note 48, at 368-69.
[FN52]. Id. at 370.
[FN53]. Id. at 361, 370-71.
[FN54]. Id. at 371.
[FN55]. Welch, supra note 48, at 317.
[FN56]. Cochabamba Declaration, available at http://
www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/imf/bolivia/cochabamba.htm#declaration (last visited
Apr. 2, 2010).
[FN57]. Vandana Shiva, Water Wars: Privatization, pollution, and Profit 87 (2002).
The World Bank serves the interests of water companies both through its regular loan
programs to governments, which often come with conditions that explicitly require the
privatization of water provision, and through its private sector arm, the International Finance
Corporation, which invests in privatization projects and makes loans to companies carrying them
out. Lending about $20 billion to water supply projects over the last decade, the World Bank has
been the principle financer of privatization. A year-long study by the International Consortium of
Investigative Journalists, a project of the Washington-based Center for Public Integrity, released
in February, 2003, found that the majority of World Bank loans for water in the last five years
have required the conversion of public systems to private as a condition for the transaction. The
performance of these companies in Europe and the developing world has been well documented:
huge profits, higher prices for water, cut-offs to customers who cannot pay, little transparency in
their dealings, reduced water quality, bribery, and corruption.
Maude Barlow & Tony Clarke, Water Privatization, Global Pol'y Forum, Jan. 2004,
http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/209/43398.html.
[FN58]. Shiva, supra note 57, at 87.
[FN59]. World Bank Group, Assessment of the Impact of the crisis on New PPI projects--Update
3, at 2 (2009), http:// ppi.worldbank.org/features/june2009/200906PPIFinancialCrisisImpact.pdf.
[FN60]. Shiva, supra note 57, at 90-91.
[FN61]. Id. at 87.
21. [FN62]. One example is a
bank-funded water project in Pakistan [which] has led to widespread environmental harm and
suffering among local communities. The project has contributed to deadly floods, and violates
six of the Bank's binding policies. These are the main conclusions of an investigation by the
Inspection Panel, the World Bank's independent investigative body.
Press Release, Int'l Rivers, Internal Investigation Shows World Bank Water Project Destroys
Livelihoods in Pakistan (Oct. 25, 2006), available at http:// internationalrivers.org/en/south-
asia/pakistan/internal-investigation-shows-world-bank-water-project-destroys-livelihoods-pakis.
[FN63]. Varupi Jain, Delhi Water Project Soaked in Controversy, India Together, Sept. 26, 2005,
available at http:// www.indiatogether.org/2005/sep/gov-delwater.htm#continue. The Delhi Jal
Board, the government agency responsible for supplying potable water to the area surrounding
and including Delhi, known as the National Capital Territory, was formed via an Act of the Delhi
Legislative Assembly on April 6, 1998. See generally, Delhi Jal Board, Welcome to the
Department of the Delhi Jal Board,
http://www.delhi.gov.in/wps/wcm/connect/DOIT_DJB/djb/home (last visited Apr. 2, 2010).
[FN64]. Jain, supra note 63.
[FN65]. Id.
[FN66]. Id.
[FN67]. See generally The World Bank, Tamil Nadu Irrigated Agriculture Modernization and
Water-Bodies Restoration and Management Project--India,
http://web.worldbank.org/external/projects/main?
Projectid=P090768&theSitePK=40941&pagePK=64283627&menuPK=228424&piPK=73230
(last visited Mar. 23, 2010) (serving as a repository of vital project information).
[FN68]. Bharti Patel, I Am Warm--World Bank in India, Countercurrents.org, Jan. 21, 2009,
http://www.countercurrents.org/patel210109.htm.
[FN69]. A bund is “an embankment used especially in India to control the flow of water.”
Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary (2010), http://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/bund.
[FN70]. Patel, supra note 68.
[FN71]. Maude Barlow, Blue Gold: The Global Water Crisis and the Commodification of the
World's Water Supply 23 (2001).
[FN72]. Vandana Shiva, Water Wars 87 (2002), available at http://
www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Vandana_Shiva/Water_Wars_VShiva.html.
[FN73]. See, e.g., Jennifer Naegele, What is Wrong With Full-Fledged Water Privatization?, 6
22. J.L. & Soc. Challenges 99, 112 (2004) (discussing the annual revenues of the three major players
in corporate water privatization).
[FN74]. Geoffrey Lean, GM Giant's Plan to Cash in on World Water Crisis, Independent
(London), Sept. 26, 1999, available at http:// www.independent.co.uk/news/gm-giants-plan-to-
cash-in-on-world-water-crisis-1121825.html.
[FN75]. Id. Vandana Shiva, Director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and
Ecology, in New Delhi, India, quoted Monsanto officials as asserting, “first, we believe that
discontinuities (either major policy changes or major trendline breaks in resource quality or
quantity) are likely, particularly in the area of water and we will be well-positioned via these
businesses to profit even more significantly when these discontinuities occur.” Vandana Shiva,
World Bank WTO, and Corporate Control Over Water, Int'l Socialist Rev., Aug.-Sept. 2001.
[FN76]. Sarah I. Hale, Comment, Water Privatization in the Philippines: The Need to Implement
the Human Right to Water, 15 Pac. Rim L. & Pol'y J. 765, 768 (2006). Privatization has also
taken place in cities across the globe, including Buenos Aries, Jakarta, and Nkobongo, South
Africa. Id. at 766.
[FN77]. Id. at 772 (citations omitted).
[FN78]. See id. at 772-73 (discussing the extremely high cost of quality water).
[FN79]. See id. at 772 (stating that the city's figures for water connectivity are still below the
United Nations' goals).
[FN80]. Asian Dev. Bank, Water in Asian Cities: Utilities' Performance and Civil Society Views
53 (Charles T. Andrews & Cesar E. Yñiguez eds., 2004).
[FN81]. Hale, supra note 76, at 772 (citing Asian Dev. Bank, supra note 80, at 52) (“In 2001,
93% of the city or 10 million residents lacked access to the sewer and waste system.”).
[FN82]. See id. at 768 (stating there were “no meaningful improvements in service and access”
during the privatized period).
[FN83]. Id. at 772-73.
[FN84]. Id. at 766-67.
[FN85]. Barlow, supra note 71, at 29-30.
[FN86]. Shiva, supra note 57, at 91.
[FN87]. See e.g., Rudolf Amenga-Etego, Water Privatization in Ghana: Still Born or Born
Deformed? (July 7, 2003), http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?
ID=2162&ThisURL=./western.asp&URLName=WESTERN+REGION.
23. The direct impact on the workers of the Ghana Water Company Limited [GWCL] is no less
traumatizing. Many have lost their jobs since the privatization began in the mid ‘90s. Information
filtering in from Bank sources suggests that about 2900 workers will be laid off under the current
management service contract deal. Discussions over severance packages have been ongoing for
several years.
Id.; see also, Ghana Goes Ahead with Controversial Water Privatisation, Afrol News, Jan.
13, 2005, http://www.afrol.com/categories/economy_ development/privatisation. (“Nearly half
the 4,600 employees of Ghana Water are likely to lose their jobs as the new private sector
contractor seeks to streamline operations. However, there is financial provision within the water
privatisation project to compensate those made redundant.”); GWCL to Redeploy 1,280
Workers, GhanaWeb, Aug. 24, 2005, http://
www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=88700 (“About 1,280
workers of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) to be retrenched under the Private
Sector Participation (PSP) in water delivery have started receiving letters informing them of their
redeployment, as the multi-million-dollar programme finally gears up to take off.”).
[FN88]. See e.g., Dameria Hasibuan, Pres. SP PDAM, Jakarta Water Privitization: Workers
Campaign to Bring Back Water in Public Hands (2007), available at
http://www.waterjustice.org/uploads/attachments/6_ADB_Water-
privatisation_Jakarta_Dameria_kyoto_apr07_eng.pdf.
When first privatized in 1998, PDAM Jakarta (PAM JAYA) (a public water utility owned by
the city government) has [sic] approximately 3.000 employees. Shortly after the privatization,
2800 of them were seconded to the private concessionaires, Suez and Thameswater.
Approximately 150 employees were still working for PDAM to supervise the service provided
by the private sector.
In general, the payment difference between seconded and direct worker is 2.5 to 5 times. A
manager (seconded employee) receives USD 1.200 while direct employees with the same level
receive USD 2.700. At a staff level, a seconded employee (who has been working for 10 years)
receive USD 160 while a new direct staff can receive USD 300).
Id.
[FN89]. Rudolf Amenga-Etego, Coalition Fights World Bank, IMF Privatization Scheme,
http://www.citizen.org/cmep/Water/cmep_ Water/reports/ghana/articles.cfm?ID=7740 (last
visited Apr. 2, 2010).
[FN90]. For a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of privatization, see generally
Mark Dumol, The Manila Water Concession: A Key Government Official's Diary of the World's
Largest Water Privatization 16-20 (2000) (addressing the advantage of privatization with regards
to financing, personnel, and procurement); Jessica Budds & Gordon McGranahan, Are the
Debates on Water Privatization Missing the Point? Experiences from Africa, Asia and Latin
America, 15 Env't & Urbanization 87 (2003).
[FN91]. Budds & McGranahan, supra note 90, at 97.
[FN92]. For a discussion on privatization, see generally id.; O'Neill, supra note 48.
24. [FN93]. Patrick Apoya, Community Public Sector Partnership for the Provision of Water
Services in Savelugu, Ghana 5-6 (Commonwealth Foundation, 2003), available at http://
www.commonwealthfoundation.com/uploads/documents/ACFbo5KjI.pdf.
[FN94]. Id. at 5, 18.
[FN95]. Id. at 14.
[FN96]. Id. at 1.
[FN97]. Integrated Reg'l Info. Networks [IRIN], Running Dry: The Humanitarian Impact of the
Global Water Crisis 19 (2006), available at http:// www.irinnews.org/pdf/in-depth/Running-Dry-
IRIN-In-Depth.pdf.
[FN98]. Id.
[FN99]. George Sibley, Government Capitalism Can Be a Very Good Thing, High Country
News, May 22, 2009, available at http://www.hcn.org/wotr/government-capitalism-can-be-a-
very-good-thing.
[FN100]. See, e.g., id.
In 1939, residents of the towns of Gunnison and Crested Butte [Colorado] had already had
electricity in heir homes for almost half a century. This was true for the nation at large, where
virtually every city and town of any size had electricity.... But only one rancher or farmer in nine
had electricity.
Id.
[FN101]. Id.
[FN102]. TVA: Electricity for All, Rural Electrification, http:// newdeal.feri.org/tva/tva10.htm
(last visited Apr. 2, 2010) [hereinafter Electricity for All].
[FN103]. National Rural Electric Cooperative Association [NRECA], History of Electric Co-ops,
http://www.nreca.org/AboutUs/Co-op101/CoopHistory.htm (last visited Apr. 2, 2010).
[FN104]. Id.
[FN105]. Id.
[FN106]. See, e.g., U.S. Dept. of Agric. [USDA], Welcome to Rural Development's Electric
Programs, http://www.usda.gov/rus/electric (last visited Apr. 2, 2010).
Providing reliable, affordable electricity is essential to the economic well-being and quality
of life for all of the nation's rural residents. The Electric Programs provide leadership and capital
to upgrade, expand, maintain, and replace America's vast rural electric infrastructure. Under the
authority of the Rural Electrification Act of 1936, the Electric Programs make direct loans and
loan guarantees to electric utilities to serve customers in rural areas.
25. Id.
[FN107]. Sibley, supra note 99 (quoting Franklin Roosevelt).
[FN108]. Tennessee Valley Authority Act of 1933, Pub. L. No. 73-17, 48 Stat. 58 (codified as
amended at 16 U.S.C. § 831 (2006)); see also id. § 831a(g)(1)(L) (“[The Board shall] establish
the electricity rates charged by the Corporation ....”); id. § 831i (“[a]nd in the sale of such current
by the Board it shall give preference to States, counties, municipalities, and cooperative
organizations of citizens or farmers, not organized or doing business for profit, but primarily for
the purpose of supplying electricity to its own citizens or members”).
[FN109]. Id. § 831i. “[T]here is hereby created a body corporate by the name of the ‘Tennessee
Valley Authority’ (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Corporation’). The Board of Directors first
appointed shall be deemed the incorporator ....” Id. § 831.
[FN110]. The Public Works Administration was created by the National Industrial Recovery Act
(NIRA) of 1933, Pub. L. No. 73-67, § 201(a), 48 Stat. 195 (1933). “NIRA authorized the
President to create the Public Works Administration and provided $3.3 billion in initial funding.”
Steven A. Ramirez, The Law and Macroeconomics of the New Deal at 70, 62 Md. L. Rev. 515,
554 (2003).
[FN111]. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down NIRA as unconstitutional in A.L.A. Schechter
Poultry Corp. v. United States, on May 11, 1935. 295 U.S. 495, 542 (1935). President Roosevelt
established the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) via Executive Order 7037 on the
same day. Exec. Order No. 7037 (May 11, 1935). REA's duties and functions were “[t]o initiate,
formulate, administer, and supervise a program of approved projects with respect to the
generation, transmission, and distribution of electric energy in rural areas.” Id.
[FN112]. See Research on the Economic Impact of Cooperatives, Rural Electric,
http://reic.uwcc.wisc.edu/electric (last visited Apr. 2, 2010) (discussing the Electric Cooperative
Corporation Act, drafted in 1937 as “a model state law for formation and operation of rural
electric cooperatives,” designed to help with the purchase of electric power).
[FN113]. Morris L. Cooke, Electrifying the Countryside, Survey Graphic, 1935, available at
http://explorepahistory.com/odocument.php?docId=493.
[FN114]. Wake Electric, History, http://www.wemc.com/history.aspx (last visited Apr. 2, 2010).
[FN115]. Id.
[FN116]. Electricity for All, supra note 102.
[FN117]. Id.
[FN118]. Id.
26. [FN119]. Id.
[FN120]. Id.
[FN121]. Id.
[FN122]. The Electric Home and Farm Authority [EHFA], a retail sales finance company owned
and operated by the United States government, was organized in 1934 in accordance with an
Executive Order of the President of the United States ‘for the purpose of promoting and
financing the sale of electric appliances.’ Initially a coordinate agency with the Tennessee Valley
Authority, it was designed to aid in ‘developing and fostering an increased use of electric power
through the double reduction of cost of electricity to the consumer and the cost of electrical
appliances.’
Joseph D. Coppock, Organization and Operations of the Electric Home and Farm Authority,
in Government Agencies of Consumer Instalment [sic] Credit 91, 93 (Joseph D. Coppock ed.,
1940) (quoting Exec. Order No. 6513 (Dec. 19, 1933)). On August 1, 1935 the EHFA's
jurisdiction was extended beyond the Tennessee Valley region to the entire country. Id. at 93-94.
[FN123]. See, e.g., Gregory B. Field, “Electricity for All:” The Electric Home and Farm
Authority and the Politics of Mass Consumption, 1932-1935, 64 Bus. Hist. Rev. 32, 33 (1990).
Using the TVA's mandate for the distribution of inexpensive electric power and
experimenting with new methods of state intervention in the economy, Lilienthal crated the
Electric Home and Farm Authority (EHFA), a federal credit agency designed to subsidize and
stimulate consumer purchases of electric appliances, primarily refrigerators, ranges, and hot
water heaters. For the ambitious young director, the EHFA involved much more than selling a
few iceboxes in the steamy Southeast. By increasing sales of refrigerators and other goods
through the EHFA, Lilienthal sought to forge a political economy of mass consumption....
Id.
[FN124]. Id. at 36.
[FN125]. Electricity for All, supra note 102.
[FN126]. NRECA, supra note 103.
[FN127]. Id.
[FN128]. Id.
[FN129]. See 7 U.S.C.S. § 6942 (LexisNexis 2010) (establishing the Rural Utilities Service).
[FN130]. NRECA, supra note 103.
[FN131]. Sibley, supra note 99.
[FN132]. See National Rural Electric Cooperative Association [NRECA], Co-ops by the
27. Numbers, http://www.nreca.org/AboutUs/Co-op101/CooperativeFacts.htm (last visited Apr. 23,
2010) (“[E]lectric cooperatives... deliver 10 percent of the total kilowatt hours sold in the U.S.
each year”).
[FN133]. See e.g., Laurence J. Malone, Rural Electrification Administration: Market Failure in
Delivering Electricity to Rural Areas Before 1930, EH.Net Encyclopedia, Mar. 16, 2008, http://
eh.net/encyclopedia/article/malone.electrification.administration.ru (citing D.C. Brown,
Electricity for Rural America 80 (1980) (“Monies lent through the R.E.A. were also largely
repaid, as the default rate was less than one percent.”)). But cf., Joel A. Youngblood, Note, Alive
and Well: The Rural Electrification Act Preempts State Condemnation Law: City of Morgan City
v. South Louisiana Electric Cooperative Assoc., 16 Energy L.J. 489, 490 (1995) (citing
“increasingly-frequent loan defaults by cooperative borrowers.”); id. n.7 (citing REA Asks TVA
to Help Stranded Co-ops and Consider Purchase of Big Rivers, Elec. Util. Wk., Aug. 1, 1994, at
8; Illinois Co-op to Pay Off $ 28 Million REA Debt at 50 Cents to the Dollar, Elec. Util. Wk.,
May 23, 1994, at 15; N.H. Electric Co-op Emerges From Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, Elec. Util.
Wk., Dec. 6, 1993, at 3; NRECA to Oppose Distribution Co-op Guarantees of REA Loans to
G&Ts, Elec. Util. Wk., Mar. 5, 1990, at 7).
[FN134]. Ashok J. Gadgill & Elisabeth A. Derby, Providing Safe Drinking Water to 1.1 Billion
Unserved People 2, 8-9 (96th Annual Air & Waste Mgmt. Assoc. Conference, Working Paper
No. 70492, 2003).
[FN135]. Id. at 2, 8, 12.
[FN136]. For a review of LDCs, see supra note 9 and accompanying text.
[FN137]. See e. g., United Nations Development Programme, Energy and Environment, UNDP
FastFacts, Clean Water and Sanitation for the Poor (Jan. 3, 2003)
http://www.undp.org/water/wwf3/docs/factsheet120303E.pdf.
Over the past decade, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has managed a
US$900 million budget devoted to sustainable water development in 90 countries worldwide.
The organization's presence in the field of water resource management ranges from the
international to the community level ... UNDP offers several different types of service, including:
helping countries ensure that integrated water resource management is part of their national
development strategies; supporting efforts to make local use and governance of water resources
more effective and sustainable; building capacity for cooperative management of transboundary
waters; incorporating attention to gender at all levels of water governance; and Cap-Net, an
international network offering information- sharing and training to build effective water resource
management capacity.
Id. (emphasis added). It is of note that the UNDP budgeted $90 million per annum for 90
countries--$1 million per country--a tragically paltry sum. However, even this meager amount
was dedicated to studies of “integrated water resource management”; “building capacity for
cooperative management”; “information sharing” but not a penny for providing water to the
poor. See also, Press Release, High-Level Event on Water: Interactive Dialogue (AM & PM)
Sustainable Management of Water Resources Vital to Achieving Anti-Poverty Goals, U.N. Doc.
28. GA/10925 (Mar. 22, 2010), available at http://
www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2010/ga10925.doc.htm.
African Heads of State and Government had shown a great political commitment to
improving the water and sanitation sectors, notably at the 2009 Second African Water Week,
held in Johannesburg, where Africa's water challenges were broadly recognized as central to the
continent's development agenda. However, 340 million Africans still lacked access to safe water,
and 580 million lacked access to basic sanitation. Seven of every ten rural people had no access
to a toilet, while 884 million people worldwide used unimproved water sources. In 2006, more
than 37 per cent of global population had no access to toilets, latrines or other improved forms of
sanitation.
Id. (emphasis added). While the press release mentions “great political commitment,” it gives
no indication of a financial commitment.
[FN138]. In the United States, the estimated cost of drilling a properly functioning well is twelve
dollars per foot. See How Much Does It Cost To Drill A Water Well?, Fun Times Guide To
Home Building, June 4, 2007, http://
homebuilding.thefuntimesguide.com/2007/06/how_much_cost_drill_water_well.php. (noting
that “cost may be more, or less [than twelve dollars per foot] dependent upon many factors”). “In
countries where the average annual income is several hundred dollars a year, a well or washroom
project costing $2,250 is far beyond the reach of most people in need.” Lifewater, Donors Help
the Rural Poor Afford Projects, http://www.lifewater.ca/about/solution6.htm (last visited Apr.
23, 2010).
[FN139]. Cf. USAID, USAID Initiatives in Africa, http:// www.usaid.gov/locations/sub-
saharan_africa/initiatives/ (last visited Apr. 23, 2010) (highlighting the following five programs:
the Africa Education Initiative; the African Global Competitiveness Initiative; the Anti-
Corruption Initiative; the Congo Basin Forest Partnership; and the Initiative to End Hunger in
Africa).
[FN140]. Cf. Kate Murphy, Lending Talent, and Money, on a Micro Scale, N.Y. Times, June 24,
2009, at B9, available at http://
www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/business/smallbusiness/25sbiz.html (discussing growing interest,
as a result of the availability of microloans, of programs teaching poor individuals how to start
their own businesses).
[FN141]. See, e.g., Robert Hockett, Insource the Shareholding of Outsourced Employees: A
Global Stock Ownership Plan, 3 Va. L. & Bus. Rev. 357, 417 n.177 (2008) (“On the benefit side,
finance amounts to opportunity in the quite literal sense that it enables people through the
exercise of diligence to ‘make real’ their potentially value-adding ideas. In effect, this is
precisely what micro-loans, small business loans, corporate finance and venture capital finance
all amount to.”); Lisa R. Pruitt, Migration, Development, and the Promise of CEDAW for Rural
Women, 30 Mich. J. Int'l L. 707, 741 (2009) (“Women's federations [in China] ‘coordinate with
pertinent sectors to provide on-the-job training’ and they participate in disbursing micro-loans to
rural women.”) (footnote omitted).
[FN142]. Molly Moore, Mirco-Credit Pioneer Wins Peace Price, Wash. Post, Oct. 14, 2006,
29. available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2006/10/13/AR2006101300211.html.
[FN143]. Grameen Bank, What is Microcredit, http://www.grameen-
info.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=108 (last visited Apr. 2,
2010).
[FN144]. Devon Roepcke, Comment, “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” Preventing Illegal
Immigration by Creating Opportunity in Mexico Through Microcredit Lending, 38 Cal. W. Int'l
L.J. 455, 459 n.26 (2008); Muhammad Yunus, How Legal Steps Can Help to Pave the Way to
Ending Poverty, ABA Hum. Rts., Winter 2008, at 22, available at http://
www.abanet.org/irr/hr/winter08/yunus_winter08.html.
[FN145]. Grameen Bank, A Short History of Grameen Bank, http://www.grameen-
info.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19&Itemid=114 (last visited Apr. 2,
2010). The Bank's other objectives are to
bring the disadvantaged, mostly the women from the poorest households, within the fold of
an organizational format which they can understand and manage by themselves; and reverse the
age-old vicious circle of “low income, low saving [and] low investment”, into [sic] virtuous
circle of low income, injection of credit, investment, more income, more savings, more
investment, more income.
Id.
[FN146]. Grameen Bank, Is Greenman Bank Different From Conventional Banks?,
http://www.grameen-info.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27& Itemid=176
(last visited Apr. 2, 2010).
[FN147]. Yunus, supra note 144, at 22.
[FN148]. Id.
[FN149]. Id.
[FN150]. Id.
[FN151]. Id.
[FN152]. Id.
[FN153]. Yunus, supra note 144, at 22.
[FN154]. Id.
[FN155]. Id.
[FN156]. Id.
30. [FN157]. Patricia Yollin, Microcredit Movement Tackling Poverty One Tiny Loan at a Time,
S.F. Chron., Sept. 30, 2007, at A1, available at http:// www.sfgate.com/cgi-
bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/30/MN7QRSUKA.DTL.
[FN158]. Id.
[FN159]. NamasteDirect, http://www.namaste-direct.org (last visited Apr. 2, 2010).
[FN160]. Kiva, http://www.kiva.org (last visited Apr. 2, 2010).
[FN161]. Microcredit Summit Campaign, http://www.microcreditsummit.org/ (last visited Apr.
2, 2010). The three microcredit organizations named are by no means endorsed herein.
[FN162]. Kiva, for example, has risen almost $130 million from nearly 700,000 investors since
2005. Kiva, Facts & History, http:// www.kiva.org/about/facts (last visited Apr. 2, 2010).
[FN163]. UNICEF, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, http:// www.unicef.org/wash/index.html (last
visited Apr. 2, 2010).
Children--and particularly girls--are denied their right to education because their schools lack
private and decent sanitation facilities. Women are forced to spend large parts of their day
fetching water. Poor farmers and wage earners are less productive due to illness, health systems
are overwhelmed and national economies suffer.
[FN164]. See, e.g., Oran R. Young, Rights, Rules, and Resources in World Affairs, in Global
Governance: Drawing Insights from the Environmental Experience 1, 2 (Oran R. Young ed.,
1997) (“Dealing with environmental concerns has also brought to our attention the need to think
more systematically about institutional linkages and about the ways in which individual regimes
are embedded in larger institutional structures and impinge on one another in international
society.”).