Three measures to offer potable water to all Latin Americans

Approximately six years ago the UN formally included access to potable water and sanitation in the list of human rights, a recognition that has contributed to improve the coverage of services for the population, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean. 

Uruguay, Argentina, and Costa Rica are the countries in the region that currently show the greatest equality with respect to access to water and sanitation services between rural and urban areas. The three countries coincide in having recognized the human right to water and sanitation in their internal code of laws, developing programs and plans to make it a reality.    

In general lines, the region must increase and make better plans to achieve this goal, implementing a more comprehensive understanding of what this right represents. In order to provide strategic support to these countries, CAF developed the report "Implementation of the human right to water in Latin America", which identifies three priorities to be addressed:

• Formally recognize the human right to water and sanitation. This is the starting point to adopt a legal approach when addressing the water planning and management processes, as well as any legal conflicts. An indicator that would help measure advances in this area is the number of constitutional and legal frameworks that recognize the human right to water and sanitation, including its different components. 
• Guarantee the full exercise of this right, which not only includes the provision of potable water and sanitary sewage systems to the population, but also implies elements related to the quality of the services, accessibility, accountability, citizen participation, acceptability, as well as environmental and financial sustainability of the services, which are generally not taken into consideration in the development indicators of each country. To evaluate advances in this area, the proposal is to quantify the number of national strategies, policies, plans, and programs that explicitly adopt a human rights approach that considers all the elements mentioned here.
• Establish the necessary legal resources, so that the communities and users, and even the State, may assert these rights in cases of violations by operators or other actors. In this respect, the proposal is to analyze the number of legal resolutions in which the ruling considers the human right to water and sanitation, as well as the number of authorities, services operators, and qualified organizations regarding the implications and contents of this right. 

According to the publication, access to quality water and sanitation is necessary to contribute to the wellbeing and productive development of Latin Americans. For this reason, each country must guarantee full compliance of all the elements  that this human right entails, expanding its reach to all citizens in an inclusive and transparent manner.