10 December is International Human Rights Day. It also marks the fifth anniversary of Claim Your Water Rights. We started this global campaign with the aim of mobilising members to enforce the international human rights framework at local and national level. Five years on, we’ve funded 47 different members in 17 countries to hold governments accountable for upholding people’s rights to safe water and sanitation, supporting organisations across the world to design and deliver context-sensitive community-led actions, while working in global solidarity under one banner.
The impact of Claim Your Water Rights has been tangible, wide-reaching and, in many cases, transformative. Members’ achievements include: securing legal and policy reform; publishing novel research; enforcing accountability over corporate contamination; starting water rights movements; and supporting hundreds of thousands of people in multiple countries to claim better water and sanitation services.
Members have sustained success through years of community organising and hard graft. Members have tenaciously gathered data, held protests, built alliances, and mobilised communities. Hundreds of training sessions have been held; thousands of people have been reached through radio broadcasts; and millions have been informed that water and sanitation is not a luxury or a commodity – but a right and entitlement.
To celebrate the campaign’s various achievements and inspire further action, we asked members all over the world to share their Claim Your Water Rights highlights. Below we’ve compiled a snapshot of the vibrant and impactful work members have organised in the last couple of years:
Advancing climate justice and corporate accountability
In March 2024 Vision Africa Regional Network (VAREN) compelled 15 private mining companies in Luapula, Zambia, to sign business, human rights and climate justice commitments containing redress measures. The commitments were signed in the presence of Luapula’s permanent secretary as well as the province’s ministers for water and the environment to enhance accountability. Reflecting on the campaign, VAREN’s executive director Jackson Mwenya said that “making the government take a stance to penalise the private sector & compel them to take remedial measures to ensure they respect the environment & right to water” was his proudest moment.
In Liberia, United Youth for Peace, Education, Transparency & Development‘s (UYPETDL) research established that MNG polluted water in Grand Cape Mount County, causing crops and animals to die, and many people to fall sick. UYPETDL disseminated findings on social media, local radio, and directly with government.
There was a significant development in the Phichit community’s legal fight against the company that polluted their water and environment. Thailand’s Special Investigations Department charged Akara with encroachment and “causing damage” to public land. These charges could have significant implications for the Phichit community’s class action lawsuit against Akara. During a discussion of Thailand’s application to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) at the 2024 Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions, Manushya Foundation highlighted the #JusticeForPhichit campaign and called for strong legislation to ensure respect for human rights and the environment, including access to remediation.
EWP members Media for Community Empowerment (MeCE), Population Development Initiative (PDI), Tanzania Water and Sanitation Network (TaWaSaNet), and Tanzania Wote Equality Alliance (TAWEA) formed the Tanzania Claim Your Water Rights Consortium. Earlier this year the Consortium trained agents of change to hold duty bearers accountable for guaranteeing safe water and sanitation in Geita’s affected mining communities. The Consortium then produced an interactive digital map documenting the state of water and sanitation services in 36 gold mining sites. The Consortium’s Festo Mrina described one “proud moment” from the campaign: “Relocating 60 gold processing sites away from residential areas in Lwamgasa means water sources and community health are protected. Claim Your Water Rights is more than a campaign; it’s a localised movement.”
Expanding civic space and campaigning during elections
Green Ark Committee (GRC) advocated for people’s water rights and an end to freshwater contamination during DRC’s general election between December 2023 and March 2024. GRC lobbied political candidates to extend water services within marginalised areas in the city of Uvira and to stop the contamination of Lake Tanganyika and Mulongwe, Kalimabenge, Kamvinvira, Ruzozi, Kahwizi rivers. GRC translated these aims into action by organising community meetings, peaceful protests and a petition to state authorities. Despite conducting these actions in a context of longstanding conflict and electoral security challenges, GRC successfully shifted political and public perceptions. Uvira City Hall established a ‘Water Office’ and the right to water became popularised. GRC’s executive secretary Pierre Panda said that people now “conceive access to water not as a favour but as a fundamental right”. You can read Pierre’s blog on GRC’s campaign on our website.
Center for Law & Justice (CLJ) similarly used Pakistan’s delayed elections to mobilise marginalised communities to ‘Vote for Water’. CLJ surveyed Christian neighbourhoods in Lahore, identifying the availability of clean water as voters’ second most pressing concern. CLJ are continuing to hold politicians accountable now they have assumed office, employing research, lobbying, social media, and public mobilisation to uphold pledges and highlight inequalities in access to water and sanitation.
CBOs Coalition for Human Rights & Good Governance launched a campaign to bring back water subsidies for informal settlement residents in Blantyre, Malawi, building a collective voice of water user associations, neighbour groups and civil society. The Coalition established the Water Overcharging Monitoring Network to document the number of residents receiving excessive water bills. The Coalition continues to meet community leaders ahead of Malawi’s elections to discuss systemic water issues.
In Enugu, Nigeria, the Network of Water Rights Initiative‘s (NEWARI) campaign goes from strength to strength. During the 2023 elections NEWARI secured a commitment from the would-be governor to make water available to all citizens within 180 days of being inaugurated. In November NEWARI ran a public countdown to hold the governor accountable to this promise. During this time NEWARI verified the installation of 95 public fountains and quality pipes and received numerous testimonies from communities who are now receiving piped water. NEWARI also garnered a written, public commitment from the governor that water would not be privatised after seeking clarification on the involvement of a US-based contractor who was tasked with repairing 9th Mile Water Scheme. The governor issued a public, written clarification that a service as ‘precious as water should not be in private hands’.
As a result of concerted public pressure, in January Enugu’s government devoted 5.5% of the state’s budget to the water sector – the first time in decades that the sector would receive such a significant prioritisation. Since then progress has been made with pipe reticulation while services have been extended to previously unserved rural communities outside Enugu metropolis. NEWARI’s coordinator Amaka Nweke said “one of the most memorable things we have achieved is making sure that people in Enugu claim their water rights. Today people talk about water; people claim their water rights; people now know that water is their right.”
Enfranchising marginalised communities
Youth Advocacy Center (YAC) supported flood-affected communities in Kasur, Pakistan, to claim their rights autonomously. YAC organised human rights training, helped establish community advocacy groups and facilitated dialogues for people to voice concerns and collectively strategise. YAC also offered legal clinics for people to seek advice, assert their rights and address grievances. In several villages, legal clinicians’ advice led to redress and restoration of water supply for 5,000 people.
MUDEM A.C. exposed the discrimination experienced by indigenous rural communities in Mexico, sharing indigenous women’s stories via the press and identifying parliamentarians to establish a Water Caucus to urgently advocate for increasing budget for dispersed rural communities. One of the key outcomes from MUDEM A.C.’s activities was the creation of the ‘Mixteca Water Agenda’, which was developed with community committees. MUDEM presented this agenda to political candidates, Mixteca’s municipal president, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, and the media, demanding constitutional recognition for community water management.
The Indian Institute of Youth & Development‘s (IIYD) human rights-based approach continues to yield results. Since 2023 IIYD’s campaign – which started in Odisha and has spread to other Indian states with the support of the Freshwater Action Network of South Asia (FANSA) – has led to human rights training for over 250 civil society organisations across India, the submission of 53 representations from marginalised groups to local authorities, and the establishment of water and sanitation services in 50 schools. IIYD’s P. C. Misra noted that civil society are gradually shifting to human rights-based approach as the campaign demonstrates a “lasting impact with local communities”. Claim Your Water Rights has since been taken up by other EWP members in India. In October the Institute of Social Research and Development (ISRD) began the ‘Removing the taboos, removing the barriers’ campaign, working with women’s networks to establish a collective voice to promote menstrual management and gender equality in Manipur.
Integrated Regional Support Program (IRSP) has similarly changed public perceptions in Pakistan with local authorities acknowledging people’s ‘water rights’ and the need for ‘safely managed’ sanitation services. IRSP’s executive director Shah Nasir Khisro said the campaign “has achieved remarkable success at local and national levels. This initiative educated and empowered communities at the grassroots while engaging stakeholders across all tiers to plan for safe water and sanitation more effectively. One of the most significant short-term outcomes of the campaign is the increased attention and discussion on water and sanitation issues among local government officials.”
In South Africa the South African Water Caucus and WaterCAN are providing training and testing kits for citizen scientists to test water quality in all provinces. This has established evidence to advocate for improved water management in specific areas such as Cape Town and KwaZulu Natal province. Meanwhile in Johannesburg, the Socio-Economic Rights Institute‘s (SERI) director of research and advocacy Lauren Royston delivered testimony on the state of access to water in inner city buildings to the Khampepe Commission of Inquiry into the Usindiso building fire. The testimony draws on SERi’s research into basic services in the inner city, a collaboration with Inner City Federation (ICF) and 1to1 Agency of Engagement as part of the Claim Your Water Rights campaign.
Resisting privatisation and strengthening public water and sanitation services
In February The International Labour Research and Information Group (ILRIG) published a ‘People’s History of Water Privatisation’ in South Africa. The popular education booklet unravels the intertwined history of neoliberalism and apartheid, outlining the different forms water privatisation takes as well as the resistance of various movements, from the Coalition Against Water Privatisation to our members the Africa Water Commons Collective. ILRIG disseminated around 2,000 copies of the booklet to communities, workers’ organisations, and allied NGOs to assist in the building of new movements against privatisation and for people’s realisation of water rights.
In Honduras the Asociación Hondureña De Juntas Administradoras De Sistemas De Agua (AHJASA) managed to stall the national congress’ attempts to repeal the Framework Law of the Water and Sanitation Sector. AHJASA solicited the views of water users and community leaders to develop a counter-proposal that guarantees sustainability of services, clear obligations for duty-bearers, and the human right to water for all Hondurans.
Millennium Community Development Initiatives (MCDI) are facilitating people affected by the Ruiru Dams in Kenya to conduct legal research, lodge complaints and advocate for their rights. Following meetings to discuss inequities around Ruiru Dam, the people of Matimbei reclaimed their water from Githunguri Water Company – who charged extortionate prices for an unreliable service – through concerted community pressure. MCDI has since joined forces with fellow EWP members African Humanity Initiative, Small Water Providers Association (SWAPAK), and Women Collective Kenya to resist water privatisation and repression of civic space.
In Zimbabwe the National Association of Youth Associations (NAYO) marked International Human Rights Day by organising a community meeting to discuss the Muda Dam and water privatisation. NAYO, who have worked on the Claim Your Water Rights campaign since its inception, are sustaining actions initiated over five years ago, supporting Youth Water & Climate Justice hubs to promote decentralised community organising and activism in Chitungwiza, while collaborating with Zimbabwe’s Human Rights Commission to uphold people’s rights to water and sanitation.
