Empty Promises: The struggle for equitable access to water in South Africa

By Tracy Ledger Water is essential to human existence and wellbeing: access to sufficient, clean water is central to sanitation, human health and quality of life. This was recognised as a human right by the United Nations (UN) in 2010. Only 52 countries guarantee access to water as a human right. South Africa is one of these. Section 27 (1) (b) of the Constitution states that ‘everyone has the right to sufficient food and water’. A wide range of policy documents contain a clear state commitment to universal access to sufficient water and a recognition that affordability is a key component of this access. But in South Africa, the quality of water services has declined steadily over the past decade, the basic minimum water-provision amount set by policy is below WHO standards, poor households are punished with water deprivation when they are not able to pay and there are serious implementation challenges in rolling out the Free Basic Water policy. This report emphasises the following key affordability issues in a human-rights-based approach: The importance of concrete affordability provisions in policy, rather than vague commitments; Paying for water should not limit a household’s ability to acquire other basic essentials, such as food or shelter; It is the state’s responsibility to determine whether water is affordable, and to take remedial action where it is not, including the provision of free water.