Citizenship and the right to water: Lessons from South Africa’s Free Basic Water policy

From:
Department for International Development
Published
1 January 2005
Country:
South Africa
Document Type:
Book Chapter
Theme:
Governance and Conflict
Authors:
Mehta, L.

Abstract

This chapter uses the case of water and South Africa’s FBW policy to examine several challenges confronting contemporary understandings of citizenship and rights. These include universalism versus particularism, resource constraints in implementing rights, and questions of enforceability and justiciability, particularly with respect to social and economic rights. This chapter argues that even though implementing universal rights standards has been rather contradictory in the water domain, there is still value in institutionalizing access to water as a human right and viewing the right to water as an entitlement of both national and global citizenship.

Owing to copyright restrictions, only the first 3 pages are attached, together with a link to the book at Zed Books.

Citation

Mehta, L. Citizenship and the right to water: Lessons from South Africa’s Free Basic Water policy. In: Inclusive Citizenship: Meanings and Expressions. N Kabeer (ed.). Zed Books, London, UK (2005) ISBN 9781842775486

Published 1 January 2005
Contents