Water rights
Photo: Tanvir Ahmed / Driknews
Life and livelihoods rely on water. Lack of clean water impoverishes people and hinders opportunities while better access to water can be an important tool for alleviating poverty. Quality of life is affected not only by physical access to water, but also by the degree of influence people have on decisions about water allocation. Right to water is crucial and contested across the globe. Urbanization, industrialization, environmental degradation, agricultural intensification, rising per capita water use, increasing population, and other social, political, and economic transformations contribute to growing scarcity and demand for better management of water resources. Access to water is essential for improving the lives of poor people. In many parts of the world, growing competition for scarce supplies of freshwater threatens livelihoods and hopes for the future. Inadequate institutions for water governance contribute to social inequity, economic inefficiency, and environmental degradation. The importance of water rights is increasingly acknowledged, but too little is known about how water rights systems can be improved in practice, and how to avoid the risk that reforms may backfire, worsening insecurity, confusion, and injustice regarding access to water. Internationally, there is growing understanding that water rights are important and that a lack of effective water rights systems creates major problems for the management of increasingly scarce water supplies. Secure water rights for the poor, and governance structures to ensure that their rights are protected, are needed for both equitable and sustainable water use. In many countries around the world, increasing attention is being directed to the need to improve water rights systems. As water becomes scarcer and access more often contested, societies pursue better rules for coordinating water use and settling conflicts. Lack of well-defined and secure water rights increases the vulnerability of poor, politically and economically weaker water users. Improved water rights institutions can raise water productivity, increase benefits from existing and new investments in water use, and enhance rural livelihoods.
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