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regulations to ensure the access of individuals to sufficient, affordable and physically accessible
and safe drinking water and sanitation. Effective judicial or other appropriate remedies should be
available to individuals who have been denied this access.
49. Given the clarity of these obligations, the open debate as to whether the human right to
access safe drinking water is a stand-alone right or is derived from other human rights should not
impair the recognition of access to safe drinking water as a human right. As noted in chapter II,
the normative content of human rights obligations in relation to access to sanitation would need
further elaboration.
B. National strategy on water and sanitation
50. CESCR general comment No. 15 identifies the adoption of a national strategy on safe
drinking water as a priority and as a key element to ensure and monitor access to safe drinking
water, and sets a certain number of parameters this strategy should entail.68 UNDP’s 2006
Human Development Report also stresses that each country should have a national water and
sanitation strategy and offers further guidance as to the specific elements this strategy should
encompass. It suggests that every national strategy should include clear goals backed by
adequate financing, minimum provision levels and policies to reach the strategy’s goals, as well
as pro-poor regulations.
51. Further elaboration may be desirable to clarify whether the development of a national
human rights strategy forms part of States’ obligations in relation to access to safe drinking water
and sanitation and if so, the specific issues it should address.
C. Private provision of water and sanitation services
52. A number of submissions to the consultation process for the study have highlighted the
potential impact that the private provision of water and sanitation services can have on access to
safe drinking water and sanitation. Some submissions suggested that human rights obligations in
relation to access to safe drinking water and sanitation should prevent the private provision of
these basic services. The approach of United Nations treaty bodies and special procedures has
been to stress that the human rights framework does not dictate a particular form of service
delivery and leaves it to States to determine the best ways to implement their human rights
obligations.69 While remaining neutral as to the way in which water and sanitation services are
provided, and therefore not prohibiting the private provision of water and sanitation services,
human rights obligations nonetheless require States to regulate and monitor private water and
sanitation providers.
53. An implicit dimension of this duty to regulate is that privatization of water and sanitation
services should not take place in the absence of a clear and efficient regulatory framework that
68
69
Para. 47.
See for instance, CESCR general comment No. 3 (1990) on the nature of States parties’
obligations.
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