Realising the right of access to water: pipe dream or watershed?

dc.contributor.authorde Visser, Jaap
dc.contributor.authorCottle, Edward
dc.contributor.authorMettler, Johann
dc.date.accessioned2014-09-17T20:15:44Z
dc.date.available2014-09-17T20:15:44Z
dc.date.issued2003
dc.description.abstractThe article assesses the implications of the Grootboom judgment on the right of access to water. The free basic water policy intends six free kilolitres of water per household per month to be funded from the equitable share and internal cross-subsidies. No additional funds are available for the provision of free water. This creates serious problems in rural communities that do not have sufficient high volume users to ensure cross-subsidisation. For most urban working class households six kilolitres of water is insufficient. Legislation dealing with water tariffs calls for a balance between cost recovery and access to basic services. The 'reasonableness' of this principle can be disputed in the light of high unemployment and poverty rates. A recent judgment confirms the principle that disconnection is a prima facie breach of the right of access to water. The onus is on the state to justify the disconnection. Human dignity is placed at the centre of the test of whether state action is reasonable, and being deprived of a basic supply of water strips people of their dignity.en_US
dc.description.accreditationDepartment of HE and Training approved listen_US
dc.identifier.citationde Visser, J., Cottle, E. & Mettler, J. (2003). Realising the right of access to water: pipe dream or watershed? Law, Democracy & Development, 7(1): 27-53en_US
dc.identifier.issn10281055
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10566/1247
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.privacy.showsubmitterfalse
dc.publisherUniversity of the Western Capeen_US
dc.rights© 2003 de Visser, Cottle & Mettler; licensee University of the Western Cape. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
dc.status.ispeerreviewedtrue
dc.subjectWateren_US
dc.subjectSanitation
dc.subjectWorld Health Organisation
dc.subjectSouth Africa
dc.subjectConstitution
dc.subjectGrootboom judgment
dc.titleRealising the right of access to water: pipe dream or watershed?en_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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