By postdoctoral fellow Olayinka Adeniyi and Prof Ebenezer Durojaye of the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria
The availability of safe drinking water is key to understanding Africa’s water crisis. The WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme found that just 39% of Africans used safely managed drinking water in 2020, highlighting a huge disparity between Africa and better-served regions. The issue goes beyond rainfall and physical deprivation: weak infrastructure, poor service delivery, government problems and entrenched inequality decide who receives water, when and at what cost.
This situation must be framed within human rights law – water is a legal right under international law. According to the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights General Comment No.15, everyone has the right to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and cheap water for personal and home use. In Resolution 64/292, the UN General Assembly recognised safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is vital to life and all human rights.
Regional norms and interpretation support the right to water in Africa. While the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights does not explicitly state a right to water, the African Commission’s Guidelines on the Right to Water in Africa link it to life, dignity, health, development and a good environment. The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, as well as the Maputo Protocol, explicitly protect children and women from unsafe drinking water. This makes Africa’s water dilemma a crisis of water justice. It’s not just a question of whether water exists, but whether safe water is accessible to all.
The unsettling reality is that the right to water is acknowledged more frequently in the legal system than in everyday life. The repercussions are not abstract. They are the painful experiences of many, as reflected in the cholera outbreak in Hammanskraal in 2023. According to the government’s statement, the outbreak was attributed to polluted water sources and protracted failures at the Rooiwal wastewater works upstream, while investigations conducted by the Water Research Commission focused attention on treatment and sanitation failures in the region. The availability of safe water became a matter of life and death.
Hammanskraal is not an isolated case. For years, residents of Makhanda have been subjected to recurring water shortages, sewage leaks and deteriorating municipal systems. Currently, Johannesburg is experiencing the same situation. The pattern of occurrence and reporting surrounding the crisis is not unusual in several regions of Africa: rights are acknowledged, but existing infrastructure isn’t properly maintained, accountability is inadequate, and communities are faced with the consequences of state failure.
The issue isn’t restricted to South Africa. A human rights assessment conducted in Kenya's informal settlements, endorsed by the UN, revealed persistent inequality in the availability of safe and affordable water, particularly in Nairobi and other urban areas. For a significant number of residents, especially in rural areas and mostly women, water is exclusively accessible through hazardous, irregular or expensive channels. That is not solely a service delivery failure; it is a disparity in justice.
Some may contend that these are primarily technical issues that are the result of urban development, climate change, drought or outdated infrastructure. Those contentions are genuine and significant. However, the explanation is inadequate. The fundamental questions are: who is safeguarded or better protected, who is neglected, and whose burden is considered ordinary? Poor communities are expected to survive on emergency measures while others enjoy continuous supply, and water injustice thrives in areas where governance is weak, maintenance is delayed and budgets are poorly managed. It thrives in environments where wastewater contamination is tolerated, tanker systems serve as permanent substitutes for properly functioning infrastructure and communities are seldom involved in decisions that affect their lives.
Nevertheless, there are genuine opportunities to improve access to water on the continent. Firstly, Africa is characterised by robust legal and normative frameworks, and this is true of a country like South Africa. Several states have constitutional, statutory or policy commitments that can be leveraged to demand improved performance and greater accountability. Secondly, the recent crises have rendered it impossible to maintain the illusion that water is a secondary concern. Access to potable water has implications for health, education, dignity, food systems, livelihoods and public trust in government. Thirdly, there is increasing acknowledgement that decentralised, community-responsive, well-monitored water systems can be more effective for underserved communities than those that are top-down and never materialise. The challenge is not only the establishment or existence of systems, but also their maintenance, honest governance and accountability to the people they serve.
What actions should therefore be implemented? Governments should treat water failures as a violation of human rights rather than as minor problems. This would entail the allocation of resources to maintenance, wastewater treatment, water quality monitoring and transparent budgeting, in addition to the construction of new infrastructure. It includes the dissemination of transparent service delivery data. Communities must be included in planning and supervising the various processes of ensuring access to water. It entails guaranteeing that genuine intervention is necessary in response to local government failures, rather than an unending stream of justifications. Responsibility is also incumbent upon the private sector. Businesses that pollute water sources, profit from exclusionary water arrangements or affect community access to water must adhere to human rights standards. Regional institutions, civil society, researchers and the media must advocate and lobby states to transition from hollow declarations to effective actions.
Water is not merely a technical resource; it is not solely a development objective or a service delivery concern. It is a matter of human rights with implications for dignity, equality, health and democratic accountability. There is no need for additional assurances regarding the right to water in Africa. What is needed is effective implementation grounded in substantive equality, with particular attention to access for those who have been disadvantaged and have been waiting the longest.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Pretoria.
