Water for Producing Food for Basic Consumption – Guaranteed by the Right to Water or Food?

Abstract

The human right to water has been criticised for being biased towards urban areas due to its focus on water for personal and domestic uses. It has been pointed out that people living in rural areas often require water not only to satisfy their personal and domestic needs, but also for other uses relating to the broader goals of poverty reduction and livelihood security, such as food production and income generation. It could be argued that the focus of the right to water on personal and domestic uses bypasses the reality of people living in rural areas, who require water for multiple uses. This raises the question as to whether such water uses are guaranteed by the human right to water or other human rights. This chapter addresses one aspect of this question from the perspective of international human rights law and focuses on water for food production for basic consumption, in particular, subsistence agriculture.

Keywords: human right to water, human right to food, agricultural water use, livelihoods