OpenForum – a blog by the Health and Human Rights community

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Access to an adequate amount of clean water is an integral part of maintaining good health. Unfortunately for the residents of Phiri, Soweto — a low-income community in Johannesburg developed and relegated to black Africans during Apartheid — a ruling made by the South Africa Constitutional Court in a high-profile right-to-water case may limit access to this valuable resource.

The case pitted five impoverished residents of Phiri (the “applicants”) against the City of Johannesburg, Johannesburg Water, and the national Minister for Water Affairs and Forestry (the “respondents”) in a dispute about water provision policies and the installation of a pre-payment water meter system in Phiri. Before consideration by the Constitutional Court, this case had been decided in favor of the Phiri residents by two lower courts. Then on October 8, 2009, the Constitutional Court overturned these earlier decisions and ruled in favor of the respondents — the City, Johannesburg Water, and the Minister. If the poor want water, they will have to pay.

The applicants, all of whom are poor residents of Phiri, brought this case against the City, Johannesburg Water, and the Minister to challenge the adequacy of Johannesburg’s Free Basic Water policy, which allows only 6000 free liters of water per household monthly, or 25 liters per person per day for a household of 8. Households vary in size, but informal settlements sometimes adjoin these houses and share the household’s water stand. (This was the experience of the first applicant, Mrs Lindiwe Mazibuko, who shared a water stand with 19 other “household” members, thus limiting severely each person’s monthly water supply.) They also disputed the legality of installing a pre-paid water meter system in Phiri as part of a water sustainability program known as Operation Gcina’manzi (“to save water”).

Operation Gcina’manzi was implemented as a means to regulate water distribution more closely, decrease non-payment for water in Soweto, and raise money to repair corroded pipelines. After residents use up the monthly allowance of free water, they are required to purchase water from meters that automatically shut off if the consumer cannot afford to pay. The applicants contended that the provision of only 6 free kiloliters of water per month under this system violates section 27 of the Constitution, which provides that “everyone has the right to have access to sufficient water” and that “the state must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of each of these rights.” Read more

Severe heat waves and power cuts are exacerbating the already endemic problem of diarrheal diseases in Bangladesh. The number of patients seeking treatment for diarrhea in the months of March and April has nearly doubled from this time last year, according to the International Center for Diarrhoael Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR, B) where 42,000 patients have been treated in two months. Meteorological Office director Sujit Deb Sharma told the BBC that the temperature in Dhaka on Monday April 27 was 39.6C, the highest in the city for 35 years. The rising temperatures have led to a shortage of clean drinking water, made worse by the fact that power cuts of 8-12 hours a day have affected water pumps. While 80% of the population has access to improved drinking water sources in normal conditions, only about one third of the rural population and one half of urban residents have sustainable access to improved sanitation, reported WHO in 2006. Dhaka’s poorest populations are left to drink from sources of water contaminated with E. coli and rotavirus, including cheap sherbet drinks made from contaminated water.

The yearly occurrence of this type of diarrhea outbreak points to underlying problems with the water and sanitation infrastructure in the country. UNICEF has implemented programs to encourage the construction of sanitary latrines, to raise the very low percentage (36%) of individuals who have access to them. UNICEF and the government have also cooperated to install more than 20,000 safe water points within communities. More efforts of this type, along with programs to promote awareness about hygiene and water safety are necessary to mitigate or even prevent outbreaks of this magnitude in the future.

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