Right to Water

Right to Water

Climate change, social inequality, and industrial interests threaten the right to water

by Gerhard Klas

[This article posted on 7/1/2025 is translated from the German on the Internet, https://www.sozonline.de/2025/07/wasser-ueberfluss-oder-mangelware/.]

Climate change, social inequality, and industrial interests threaten the right to water.

Without water, there is no life. But who actually decides how much of it people get? Who gets to live and who has to die? Corporations are making water scarce: through privatization, through its priority use for industrial purposes, through pollution and even poisoning – whether at Tesla in Brandenburg or by the pharmaceutical industry, whether in Uruguay, Guatemala or the UK. And almost all governments are playing along.

From the Andes in Peru to the coal mines in North Rhine-Westphalia, water, the source of all life, is an increasingly contested commodity. Although around 71 percent of the Earth's surface is covered by water, access to clean drinking water remains out of reach for billions of people. The causes are rarely natural scarcity, but rather man-made inequality: economic interests, political inaction, colonial legacies. And even where water appears to be abundant – such as in Germany – the common good and the logic of profit are increasingly coming into conflict.

Not all water is the same

Only three percent of the world's water is fresh water, most of which is bound in glaciers or groundwater. Only a fraction, around 0.3 percent, is directly accessible. But even this precious share is extremely unevenly distributed. While drinking water flows from the tap at all times in many parts of Europe, people in countries such as Ethiopia, Bolivia, and India have to carry canisters and buckets long distances to wells or rivers—often to contaminated sources. According to the UN, more than 2 billion people worldwide do not have safe access to clean water. For 785 million, even basic supplies are lacking.

The causes are complex: weak infrastructure, corruption, privatization. Rural regions and poor and marginalized population groups are particularly affected, including refugees, indigenous communities, and migrant workers. In Latin America, for example, a continent rich in water, millions are still dependent on unhealthy sources.

On closer inspection, the supposed scarcity turns out to be a distribution problem. “Whether people have access to clean drinking water or not has nothing to do with how much water there is in a country,” said Marian Henn of the human rights organization FIAN at the international water conference in Cologne in March. “It is therefore not a question of pure availability, but is linked to social, economic, and political factors and issues of structural power relations.”

20 liters of water per day

In 2010, access to water and basic sanitation was recognized as a human right in its own right by the UN General Assembly – a historic step that was largely achieved through the efforts of movements from the Global South. This right had already been enshrined in various conventions, such as those on women's and children's rights.

But legal recognition alone is not enough: there is a huge gap between normative claims and practical implementation. UN guidelines specify the requirements: every human being is entitled to at least 20 liters of clean water per day, the water source must not be more than one kilometer away, and it should cost no more than 3 percent of household income. Furthermore, no one may be discriminated against or denied access. States have a triple obligation to respect, protect, and actively implement this right—both at the national level and through their role in global trade, for example through raw material imports or financing.

Germany is part of the problem

The fact that even a water-rich country like Germany is part of the problem is shown by recent research by the investigative network Correctiv published on June 5.

While many cities called on their citizens to save water and banned garden watering during the recent drought summers, industrial companies such as RWE and BASF were able to continue extracting millions of cubic meters of water unhindered – often free of charge or for symbolic fees.

RWE alone extracts over 500 million cubic meters of groundwater annually in the Rhineland – equivalent to the consumption of 11 million people. In other regions, such as Baden-Württemberg and Saxony-Anhalt, there are also no clear legal priorities for the use of drinking water for industrial purposes. While cash-strapped municipalities urge citizens to exercise restraint, corporate rights remain untouched. Studies by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) suggest that higher water prices could significantly reduce industrial consumption – by up to 16 percent.

However, reforms have so far failed due to political unwillingness and economic influence. Legal disputes are now mounting: municipalities are suing corporations, and environmental associations are calling for clear prioritization. The conflict over water has also reached Germany – and shows that human rights are not only at stake in the Global South.

Global hotspots

Around the world, water crises are escalating into social conflicts – often fueled by extractive industries. Two examples:

In Guinea, a consortium co-financed by Germany is mining bauxite, which is needed for aluminum production, among other things. As a result, rivers are being polluted, villages are being forcibly relocated, and replacement water is undrinkable. The people affected are losing not only their livelihoods but also their dignity. This is a classic case of structural human rights violations – facilitated by German Hermes guarantees.

In Guatemala, meanwhile, the indigenous movement Qana’ Ch’och, an alliance of 20 Maya communities, is documenting the expropriation of rivers by palm oil and sugar cane companies. Large plantations divert water and poison it with pesticides that have long been banned in Europe, while the local population dies of thirst. “Colonial double standards in the international pesticide trade allow companies such as Bayer and BASF to continue producing these pesticides and exporting them to countries in the Global South,” says Marian Henn of FIAN. But anyone who resists in Guatemala is threatened. The river and the surrounding villages are thus becoming the scene of colonial continuities.

Water is a common good

But there is resistance—local, international, legal. Civil society groups are fighting for recognition before UN bodies, using provisions from supply chain laws that are still in force to demand accountability, and taking legal action to enforce environmental and human rights.

Movements such as Qana' Ch'och and struggles in Peru and South Africa show that water is not just an object of state welfare – it is political terrain. And more than that: it is a subject.

In many indigenous cultures, water is considered a living being, not a resource. This spiritual-political perspective challenges the Western legal system and offers a radically different approach to the resource: not owning water, but protecting it; not managing it, but entering into a relationship with it.

For the Maya in Guatemala, water is not a commodity but a common good. Decolonizing water rights means listening to the voices of those most affected and defending their rights against the capital interests of Western investors. They should be recognized not only as victims but as bearers of knowledge and agents of change.

Or, as an activist from Qana’ Ch’och put it to FIAN: “We defend the river – but the river also defends us by giving us life.”