Monitoring “Affordability” of water and sanitation services after 2015 : review of global indicator options : a paper submitted to the United Na...

The human right to water and sanitation was explicitly recognised through resolution 64/292 by the United Nations General Assembly in July 2010. The normative content of the rights to water and sanitation is to be determined in terms of the criteria of availability, quality, acceptability, accessibility and affordability. One year after the right was adopted, the Human Rights Council guides Member States on their duties with respect to implementing the human right, in Resolution 18/1. One recommendation was that indicators are set based on human rights criteria to monitor progress and to identify shortcomings to be rectified and challenges to be met. General Comment 15 requests that States parties adopt the necessary measures to ensure, among other things, that water is affordable. Led by the WHO / UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme, the process is under way to identify targets and indicators for global sector monitoring after 2015. The human rights criteria play a central role in this process of indicator identification. Affordability considerations are key to scaling up water, sanitation and hygiene (WSH) services and ensuring everyone can benefit, irrespective of income or race, from this essential service. Indeed, WSH affordability has been recognised for decades in various global and regional water declarations and statements, and was considered for adoption in the wording of the MDG target 7 relating to water and sanitation access. Many national laws support ‘equitable’, ‘fair’, ‘acceptable’, ‘accessible’, ‘affordable’ or ‘reasonably priced’ drinking water. [authors abstract]