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Access to a basic water requirement is a fundamental human right implicitly supported by our law and international instruments. The Water Act of 2003 states that "all water found naturally in Swaziland is a national resource and there shall be no private right of property."

All water found naturally in Swaziland is a national resource and there is no private right to it

The 1989 Convention of the Rights of the Child provides that a child has the right to enjoy the highest attainable standard of health. States are to take measures to secure this right by providing nutritious food and clean water."The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that, everyone

 has the right to life and the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing"  The Swaziland National draft Constitution guarantees the right to life. 

The explicit right to life and the broader right to health and well being must include the right to sufficient water, at appropriate quality, to sustain life. To assume the contrary would mean that there is no right to the single most important resource necessary to satisfy the human rights more explicitly guaranteed by our law and other international human rights declarations and covenants.

What is the value of explicitly acknowledging a human right to water, as the international community has explicitly acknowledged a human right to food and to life? After all, despite the declaration of a formal right to food, nearly a billion people remain undernourished. One reason is to encourage our government to renew her efforts to meet basic water needs of the population. Discussion of the necessity of meeting this basic need for all humans is extremely important, it raises issues that are crucial and global but often ignored at national level. By acknowledging such a right, pressure to translate that right into specific national legal obligation and responsibility is much more likely to occur. 

What are the implications of a human right to water? How much water is necessary to satisfy this right? Solely enough to sustain life? A true minimum human need for water can only be defined as the amount needed to maintain human survival, to meet basic needs for drinking, cooking and fundamental domestic uses. A right to water cannot imply a right to an unlimited amount of water. International standards dictate that a person should have access to 20 litres of water a day and must be available from a source that is within 1km of the user’s dwelling. Statistics from the Swaziland Water Services Corporation show that only 26 000 people of the urban population are connected to clean water whilst more than 900 000 are not. The million dollar question therefore is that where does this leave the rural communities who rely on naturally found water in rivers, streams etc.? With the growing industrialization that is fast spreading to the rural areas comes water pollution and all its ills that hamper on one’s right to water because not only should water be made available but should be seen to cater for both consumptive and non consumptive needs.

Due excessive pollution the Ushushwana River, within the Matsapha Industrial Sites is becoming Swaziland’s Dead Sea

The Great Usuthu River in the Lubombo region is an example of a river that provides for the rural populace, it runs near an alcohol distillery company as reportedly dumping toxic waste into this river to the detriment of downstream communities. This conduct violates the users’ right to the clean water because polluted water is as good as no water at all.

If we accept that there is a human right to water, to what extent does government have an obligation to provide that water to citizens? While the many international declarations and formal conference statements supporting a right to water do not directly require states to meet individual water requirements, in certain circumstances, however, when individuals are unable to meet basic needs for reasons beyond their control, including disaster, economic impoverishment, age, disability, government must provide for basic needs. Meeting this minimum need should take precedence over other allocations of spending for economic development. As has been noted in the 2004/05 national budgets whereupon the Minister of Finance, Mr. Majozi Sithole announced that government has allocated E20 million to the initiative by the Rural Water Supply Board (RWSB) to provide water for all by 2022. Government sees this project as a vehicle towards poverty reduction that has been exacerbated by the current drought situation. The budget has an additional provision of E102 million for clean water supplies in a number of communities severely hit by the drought. 

The overall economic and social benefits of meeting basic water needs far outweigh any reasonable assessment of the costs of providing for the problems that result from the water shortage. 

Water borne related diseases are a huge strain on society. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 2.2 million people died from diarrhoeal diseases in 1998, including more than 1.8 million children under the age of five. The number of people without adequate water and sanitation facilities could reach 4.5 billion in the next 20 years with the urban poor the most vulnerable. Swaziland is no exception. It is reported that over 16 people have died of cholera in the country since its outbreak in December 2003. The recent reports that Swaziland has the highest HIV/Aids infection rate in the world, further necessitates for equal access to clean water for every individual. An HIV infected person’s need for clean water is double compared to an HIV negative person because of his debilitated immunity. To then deprive People Living With HIV/Aids (PLWHA) of such a pertinent resource will only serve to further diminish their life expectancy.

Water is a limited natural resource and public good fundamental for life and health. The human right to water is indispensable for leading a life in human dignity; it entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses. It is a prerequisite for the realisation of other human rights.