WATER POLITICS

As reported by Circle of Blue, in a report presented last week to the United Nations, Pedro Arrojo Agudo, the special rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, called for the democratization of fresh water and urged governments around the world to abandon the resource’s commodification and privatization.

“We are not facing a crisis of scarcity that can be resolved with technology alone,” Agudo said. “We are facing a democratic crisis. Billions of people are not simply lacking water — they are impoverished and marginalised, living near rivers or polluted aquifers, while powerful interests exploit their water sources.”

The report criticized public-private water partnerships and speculative markets that don’t cater foremost to the basic needs of people, calling on leaders to “embrace democratic, rights-based approaches that recognise water as a common good essential to life, dignity and social cohesion,” especially as the impacts of the climate crisis worsen. Advocating for a “water transition,” Agudo also highlighted the need to conserve wetlands, plan cities with flood resistance in mind, and protect aquifers, which he called “the lungs of nature.”

Last month, Agudo similarly released a report on the interconnection of water and energy, detailing a “crisis of exclusion” and urging a large-scale overhaul of state power generation, infrastructure, and financing. Communities in both Colombia and Guatemala, whose water sources were polluted and diverted by coal mining and hydroelectric dam construction, were cited as examples at the nexus of this issue.

“Crucially, a just transition in energy is inseparable from a just transition in water. The two are mutually reinforcing: equitable access to safe water depends on reliable, clean energy, while sustainable energy systems rely on responsible and equitable water management,” the report read