Who owns water? - BBC Learning English

Water. It's vital for all life. So, who owns it?

Some of the answers to that might surprise you.

We'll explain how, despite the different ways water is controlled,

the law can help you.

Should companies profit from something we all need?

And... big trouble: how water ownership

nearly brought down a government.

Can water be owned? It falls from the sky,

so should it be free for all?

And if we all need it to live,

shouldn't the law make sure that no one can stop us from having it?

Lots of international agreements recognise how important it is.

The United Nations says all its member states have to make sure

vulnerable people have access to drinking water.

And, in lots of cases, countries own it –

sharing it out among the people who live there.

So, why do we often have to pay for it?

Private water companies often own the things that bring water to you:

pipes, pumps and dams. So, they can charge for it.

And sometimes, if a river starts in one country but goes through another,

they can argue about whose water it is.

So, how does the law keep us all supplied with water?

Amanda Loeffen, from the campaigning organisation Human Right to Water,

explained which big international laws protect your access to water.

Well, the original Declaration on Human Rights,

after the Second World War,

didn't explicitly mention the right to water

but it is included in a lot of the more recent treaties,

especially in general... General Comment Number 15, in 2003,

which was the specifically on water and sanitation,

and in some of the other recent treaties,

like the ones on the rights of the child,

persons with disabilities and non-discrimination against women.

And those include clauses that address water and sanitation directly.

A right to water wasn't in the original human rights declaration,

but it has been put in more recent agreements.

General Comment 15 recognised the right to water

in 2003 at the United Nations.

So, what gets in the way of giving everyone access to water?

Land rights and property rights often make access to water more difficult,

and the rights... water... onto the use of water

is often tied to the ownership of the land.

This is particularly relevant for people that live in informal settlements

or that have used the land for...

for a long time, but don't actually own it.

Getting access to water can be made difficult by land ownership rules:

if you don't own the land the water is on,

it's harder to get the water you need.

Amanda explained what to do if you had a problem getting water.

Well, the first thing you would do is to see whether or not

there is a national law that states that you have the right to water,

or that your particular problem is dealt with in national law,

in which case you can potentially take it to a court of law.

But I think for most people,

that's a little bit outside of their ability or budget

and so it's much easier for them if they approach their local ombudsman

or national human rights institution, whose job is to help them.

Going to court can be expensive.

Amanda says you should go to an ombudsman –

an official who looks at complaints –

or a national human rights organisation.

So, is the law enough on its own to protect your right to water.

There also needs to be a system to make sure that it's complied with.

So, just because it's written in law

doesn't mean that it exists in practice,

so there needs to be monitoring

and tracking to make sure that people still have access to those services.

Although laws exist to make sure we get water,

we need people to check that laws are being followed

and people are getting access.

We should all be provided with water, thanks to major international laws.

Getting people the water they need

should be a priority for any government.

But the ways in which water is owned

can sometimes threaten governments themselves.

The Bolivian city of Cochabamba:

in the late 20th century, it was affected by water shortages.

Many poor residents didn't have a connection to the water network.

The government signed a deal with Aguas del Tunari

of International Water Limited.

The group agreed to supply the city with water.

But then prices went up and violent protests broke out.

Demonstrations got so bad that they were called the Water War.

Eventually, the deal with Aguas del Tunari was abandoned

and the water supply was returned to the public –

with little improvement.

Still in South America: Peru.

Most of its rain falls into the Amazon,

but most people live in coastal cities.

And the Andes mountain range separates the water from the people.

So, the water that is available needs to be carefully managed

to make sure everyone gets some.

Here, the water belongs to the state.

In this system, your responsibility

to use the water properly is really important.

An ideal water citizen takes care of the water,

uses it efficiently, does not spill it,

and pays for the right to use the water.

But does that mean that if you don't own the water,

you might not get the water you need?

Maude Barlow, a water rights campaigner,

explained how national and international law work with water –

and which was most important.

No, there's no international law that overrules

a nation state's right to water –

to guide its own water laws.

There are trade agreements that have investor-state rights in them,

and that gives corporations the right to sue governments,

so that gives corporations – kind of...

a leg up, if you will, on... on governments.

But, no, there's...

it's very hard to tell governments how they should govern

their environmental responsibilities.

There is no international law that overrules a national law on water.

Maude says it's very hard to tell governments how to be responsible.

She explained how companies have been able to get control of water

even though it's a human right.

Well, that's the problem of course, because a lot of this was done

before there was the concept of the human right to water,

and in the end governments are responsible for looking after

the water rights of their citizens.

But you do get countries – Australia, Chile, parts of the United States –

that actually separate water from land and sell it to developers,

to private interests and to investors, and that's a huge problem.

Many deals between companies and countries on water ownership

were set up before water was recognised as a human right.

So, if a company raises their water prices,

is there anything you can do legally to get help?

This is a problem... when a private company gets a hold of water –

either a municipal water service, like your drinking water, your waste water,

and there are many, many private companies running these services –

they sign a contract with the government saying

this is, you know, what we'll charge.

But then they put the rates up and they say to the government

we have no choice. We can show you study, after study, after study

that shows private companies charge way more money

for water services than... than public agencies or governments.

Maude is saying that private companies charge more for water

than governments do, and they're allowed to raise their prices.

So, is international law flexible enough

to deal with different systems of water ownership around the world?

No, international law is not flexible enough to deal with

the individual countries and nation states.

They do... they make their own laws.

When the governments come together to sign a treaty,

it's kind of a gentleperson's agreement, if you will:

you're agreeing to the concept.

But... you know, you might have a change of government to something

that is fairly progressive to something much more right-wing,

and they're saying to heck with any agreement.

In Maude's opinion, international law is not flexible enough

to deal with the different systems countries have for water ownership.

International law might struggle to force countries

to directly provide water to their people.

But there are laws that can help, like our basic human rights.

And there are people fighting to make sure that those laws are followed.