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DAM-L Flushing away arid theories: a reality check on the water (fwd)
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From: Shiney Varghese <svarghese@iatp.org>
To: dianne@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca
Subject: Flushing away arid theories: a reality check on the water
Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2001 19:49:40 -0500
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Right to Water (right-to-water@iatp.org) Posted: 09/05/2001 By svarghese@iatp.org
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Flushing away arid theories: a reality check on the water debate
Is there too much theorizing about water? Does regarding water as an
economic good obscure its cultural, social and symbolic dimensions? Can
market forces protect the right of the poor to water?
A report from the Institute of Development Studies casts a critical eye
over current research and debate, emphasising the need to address neglected
questions of equity and justice. What is the role of water in the everyday
lives of real people? Are we really on the verge of a global water
‘crisis’? The report argues against seeing water scarcity in absolute
terms. We need to look instead at how local social, institutional and
hydrological factors manufacture scarcity.
Are we entitled to water as a human right? The 1986 Convention on the
Rights of the Child explicitly says so and activist coalitions want to
cement this right in international law. Advocates pressing for water to be
declared a human right argue for a minimum daily entitlement of 25 litres -
in comparison, per capita daily usage in the USA is 700 litres. The report
looks at the feasibility of creating a system of national and international
obligations and responsibilities. It argues that rights-based discourses in
water are still rather abstract and practicalities still need to be worked
out.
More influential is the coalition of water utilities, donors, the World
Bank and NGOs who argue that water is an economic good, that it must be
paid for and that water and sanitation infrastructure is most efficiently
built and managed by public/private partnerships or by market forces. The
report cites countervailing evidence that privatisation of water may not
necessarily be pro-poor and the track record of state provision not totally
negative. Firms focus on rich urban customers and cut off the poor. In a
free market there is a risk that pricing mechanisms will tax the poor
instead of the rich.
Further findings include:
The number of silted up dams, broken hand-pumps and defunct water pipelines
indicates bad management and failure to build supportive institutional
arrangements to govern water supplies.
Studies on household willingness to pay for water do not look at ability to
pay and ignore power and gender dynamics within households.
Poor households pay disproportionately more for water. In some parts of the
world it is as much as 25 percent of household income.
Despite persistent global discourses concerning demand management, in most
developing countries water resource management is still supply driven.
Donors have underestimated the time and difficulty of putting into place
more rational management of water.
Among the recommendations are the need to:
identify the assumption and actors driving forward the ideology of
privatization
better understand how local water users understand water scarcity and how
water is government and managed
put in place demand-based approaches which do not unduly tax the poor and
prevent the rich from using disproportional amounts of water.
Contributor(s): Lyla Mehta
Source(s):‘Water for the twenty-first century: challenges and
misconceptions’ by Lyla Mehta, Institute of Development Studies, Working
Paper #111 (2000)
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