USA: from discrimination to accessibility, UN expert raises questions on water and sanitation

On 4 March 2011, she conveyed to the U.S. Government her preliminary reflections on her visit. Later that day, she held a press conference in Washington, DC at the United Nations Information Center. She opened the press conference with some preliminary remarks on the visit. The press statement is set out below.

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“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” (Franklin Delano Roosevelt)

I. Introduction

I undertook an official mission to the United States, at the invitation of the Government, from 22 February to 4 March 2011. The purpose of the mission was to examine the way in which the human right to water and sanitation is being realized in the United States. I wish to thank the U.S. Department of State for coordinating the visit. Additionally, I wish to thank the representatives of the following federal government agencies, who met with me: the Department of Justice; the Department of Interior; the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID); the Department of Health and Human Services, including the Center for Disease Control (CDC); the White House Council on Environmental Quality; the Department of Agriculture; and the Interagency Council on Homelessness. I had the honour to participate in a hearing convened by the U.S. Congressional Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on the right to water.

During my mission I visited Washington, DC; Boston and Falmouth, Massachusetts; Sacramento, Redding, including the Winnemen Wintu tribe, Seville, California and other communities in the San Joaquin Valley; and Edmonston, Maryland. In each of these locations, I had the occasion to meet with state and local authorities. I wish to thank them also for their time and engagement with me.

I convened seven public hearings in the various locations I visited and I had the honour of receiving personal testimony from all across the United States – including from West Virginia, Alabama, Puerto Rico, Michigan and Alaska. I especially wish to thank all those individuals who travelled long distances to share their stories with me. Numerous other testimonies were submitted to me in writing reflecting the experiences of other individuals and communities from other regions of the U.S.

I was particularly struck by the vibrant and active engagement by civil society working on human rights, water and sanitation issues during the mission. I am especially grateful for their initiative to connect me with affected communities and victims. I wish to extend a special word of thanks to all those who shared their personal, and sometime tragic, stories with me.

II. General Remarks

On 28 July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly recognized the right to water and sanitation. On 30 September 2010, the United Nations Human Rights Council affirmed, by consensus, the right and further specified that the right is derived from the right to an adequate standard of living. I wish to acknowledge that the United States joined this global consensus, which represents a political commitment to the realization of the right to water and sanitation. I am encouraged by this, and call on the U.S. to ratify the international human rights treaties that consecrate this right (International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women; Convention on the Rights of the Child; Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; and the Optional Protocols thereto).

The human right to water and sanitation entitles everyone to water and sanitation that is available, accessible, affordable, acceptable and safe without discrimination. The legal framework governing access to water and sanitation in the United States is a complex amalgam of federal and state statutes and common law principles. This multi-tiered system coupled with an array of variances available to states and private actors make generalizations about the U.S. legal framework’s capacity to reflect access to safe drinking water and sanitation as a human right particularly difficult. Nevertheless, in the absence of a federally recognized right to safe drinking water and sanitation, there are no legal barriers preventing individual states from adopting their own legislation recognizing such a right. The states of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania have already recognized a right to water (though not to sanitation) in their constitutions. I also learned that in California a bill package has just been introduced in the state Assembly that recognizes the human right to water. I welcome such initiatives and call on other states to do likewise.

With the introduction of centralized water and sanitation systems in the 19th century, the U.S. achieved enormous public health gains through the 20th century, resulting in the vast majority of people living in the United States acquiring access to clean and safe drinking water and sanitation. Additionally a robust set of regulations on water, wastewater and the environment have added to these gains.

III. Challenges to realizing the right to water and sanitation

In the U.S., roughly 85 per cent of the population receives water from a utility and 15 per cent rely on private water systems. There are over 53,000 rural water utilities, 90 per cent of which serve communities of 10,000 people or less. There are also nationwide an estimated 154,000 drinking water systems. These figures highlight the fragmentation of the sector, which presents enormous challenges when trying to regulate, monitor and find solutions for universal access. Nevertheless, the decentralization of the system reflects not only the U.S. constitutional framework, but also allows for responsiveness to local conditions, accountability, flexibility and local control.

There are ever increasing demands for water: for agriculture, for industry, for recreation, as well as for the realization of the human right to water and sanitation. The effects of climate change exacerbate these competing demands. I call on the Government to adopt clear legal standards to give priority to water for personal and domestic uses to enable the realization of the human right to water and sanitation for all.

Annually, an estimated $50 billon goes into maintaining water and sanitation infrastructure, of which consumers finance 90 per cent and state and federal resources finance 10 per cent. This notwithstanding, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that over the next 20 years $200 to $400 billion dollars will be required to ensure the sustainability of water and wastewater systems. In a time of scarce financial resources, the U.S. needs to ensure that available funding, including the loans and grants provided through the Safe Water and Clean Water State Revolving Funds, are not just used to subsidize systems but in the first instance benefits individuals, who are in the most precarious situations.

I will now address five issues that I focused on during the mission, namely: 1) non-discrimination, 2) affordability, 3) quality/safety, 4) indigenous peoples and 5) official development assistance.