Water & sanitation

The Coalition Government has committed to spending 0.7% of the UK’s gross national income in development aid from 2013. This leadership was commended by all our international partners at the recent UN Summit on MDGs.

The UK is also committed to providing people in developing countries with clean water and sanitation as part of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), namely MDG 7.

Sanitation has been highlighted as one of the most-off track MDG targets and one that underpins the progress of many of the other MDGs – especially child mortality, nutrition and overall poverty reduction. In the 'Programme for Government' the Government stated that it will prioritise aid spending programmes to ensure everyone has access to clean water and sanitation, along with other vital basic services. 

The Department for International Development (DFID) has major programmes throughout Africa and Asia that are already delivering access to safe water and improved sanitation. Find out more about water and sanitation on the DfID website.

As Human Rights

We recognise a right to water as an element of the right to an adequate standard of living in Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The right to water [PDF document 134 Kb with more detail on our position, opens a new window] entitles everyone to sufficient, affordable, safe water for drinking, cooking and personal hygiene. 

The right to water is not a freestanding right.

The UK currently does not recognise a right to sanitation as this 'right' has not been agreed upon in any UN human rights treaty and, at present, there is insufficient evidence that it exists in customary international law. We have abstained [PDF document, opens in a new window] and disassociated [PDF document, opens in a new window] from consensus on recent resolutions stating such a right, on this basis. 

It should be underlined that the UK is fully aware of the negative impact that lack of access to sanitation has on the protection of human rights.  Such awareness drives our policy commitments in this area. 

The international structure of human rights law must be effective and impact positively on the lives of individuals. Accordingly, new rights cannot be declared without due international consideration as to the content of such rights. In particular, rights must be clearly defined, so that individuals know what they can legitimately claim from the State and the State must have a clear idea of the protection they are obliged to afford the individual. 

The policy priority we all attach to improving sanitation should not lead us to a misdirected effort to declare a new legal right without due regard to the structure of international human rights law. While the intent behind recognising new rights may be noble, doing so without proper consideration undermines the UN’s human rights project.