to Safe and Clean Drinking Water and Sanitation Although a right to water is not specifically enumerated in Article 11, the Committee noted that it “clearly falls within the category of guarantees essential for securing an adequate standard of living,” since it is “one of the most fundamental conditions for survival.” The Committee defines the right to water as one that “entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses. An adequate amount of safe water is necessary to prevent death from dehydration, to reduce the risk of water-related disease and to provide for consumption, cooking, personal and domestic hygienic requirements.” Furthermore, the right entails an entitlement to water that is safe, meaning “free from micro-organisms, chemical substances and radiological hazards that constitute a threat to a person’s health.” The Committee has repeatedly linked infringements of the right to water to acts of environmental degradation and pollution resulting from agricultural, industrial and extractive activities. In concluding observations regarding Ecuador, the Committee stated its concern “about the environmental impacts of mining and agribusiness projects and, in particular, about their effects on people’s ability to exercise their right to water in rural areas.” Similarly, in concluding observations relating to Paraguay, the Committee expressed its disapproval that “the expansion of soybean cultivation has fostered the indiscriminate use of toxic agro-chemicals, leading to deaths and illnesses among children and adults, contamination of the water supply and the disappearance of ecosystems, while it has jeopardized the traditional food resources of the affected communities.” The Committee’s statements also extend beyond environmental harms caused by the business sector, noting that a lack of adequate infrastructure can have similarly adverse impacts upon the right to water.
Similarly, Article 11, relating to the right to an adequate standard of living, provides that: 1. The States Parties will take appropriate steps to ensure the realization of this right, recognizing to this effect the essential importance of international cooperation based on consent. 2. The States Parties to the present Covenant, recognizing the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger, shall take, individually and through international cooperation, the measures, including specific programmes, which are needed [to protect the right to food]. The Committee explicitly highlighted “[t]he importance of international cooperation for the promotion of economic, social and cultural rights and sustainable development” in its Statement in the context of the Rio+20 Conference in 2012. The Committee had issued a similar statement on sustainable development in 2002 prior to the meeting of the Preparatory Committee for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, emphasizing the need to uphold the principles relating to human rights in the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, the Habitat Agenda, and other instruments on international cooperation. The Committee voiced its view that “[u]pholding and invoking relevant human rights instruments in general, and the Covenant in particular, will provide a solid legal basis for international cooperation and a sense of duty to demonstrate the seriousness of the efforts of the World Summit.” The Committee has addressed the need for international cooperation when expounding upon the requirements of individual rights under the ICESCR. For example, in relation to the right to water, General Comment No. 15 states that: International cooperation requires States parties to refrain from actions that interfere, directly or indirectly, with the enjoyment of the to water in other countries. Any activities undertaken within the State party’s jurisdiction should not deprive another country of the ability to realize the right to water for persons in its jurisdiction.