Artwork: “ᑭᓯᐸᑲᒪᐠ (Kisipakamak)” by Malcolm Disbrowe: “this photo was taken on Reindeer Lake in Kisipakamak (Brochet/Barren Lands First Nation), northern Manitoba. Kisipakamak means “where the water ends” in Cree, a name that reflects the relationship between the land, water, and people living there.”.
Water: Rights and Relationships
By Kiersten Sanderson
With contributions from Angela Ciceron, Sarah Deckert, Adele Perry, and Pauline Tennent
Access to safe, accessible, affordable, and reliable clean water that can be used for drinking, cleaning, and all other daily usage, as well as access to sanitation, is a basic human right.i Recognizing the fundamental importance of water as necessary for the survival of humans and all living beings on earth, and its essential nature for the enjoyment of all other human rights, in 2010, the United Nations General Assembly finally adopted a resolution to recognize the right to water. As such, states are legally bound to respect and fulfill this right.ii
While recognizing the right to water can be heralded as a move in the right direction, inequities in access to water persist and in some cases are intensifying, and often, the communities most impacted by water injustice are denied the opportunity to participate in decision making on issues of water management and governance.
Conventional approaches to water rights and considerations of water in the everyday lives of many in the west are often rooted in the idea that water is a resource to be bought and sold;iii to be invested in and withheld from those who cannot afford it.iv Despite its commodification, there is no substitute for water, and billions of people across the world continue to live without safe access to drinking water.v From First Nations communities in Canadavi to Palestine,vii and to Paraguay,viii a denial of the right to clean drinking water is felt around the world, often by those already marginalized from other structures of oppression.
The CHRR has a longstanding history of working in the area of water and justice, through the CREATE H2Oix project, and the work of its staff, research affiliates and partners. The Just Watersx project continues this important work.
How to Cite: Sanderson, Kiersten (2025). Water: Rights and Relationships. Centre for Human Rights Research. https://chrr.info/research-theme/research-themes/water-rights-justice/
Water (In)Justice

Water Access and Governance
The community of Standing Rock went without reliable access to water for about half a century, only for the United States Government to choose to fast track the development of the Dakota Access Pipeline through Standing Rock. The pipeline was rerouted due to concerns that spills would affect the drinking water for the city of Bismarck, yet the government held little concern for Standing Rock and their own risk of contaminated water.
Water and Liveability

Climate Change and Water
Water as Relation
Water is critical to the health and survival of all life on earth. Despite widespread acknowledgement of the importance of water, unsustainable water use and colonial governance frameworks continue to drive issues of water quality, quantity and flows. Such issues are further exacerbated by climate change.
It is essential to reframe the current approach of water as a resource to one that is rooted in water as relation, to focus on the relationship between water and all living beings.xiii Respecting and incorporating Indigenous knowledge systems means understanding our own relationships with and responsibilities to water, beyond survival or ownership.
ii “The Human Right to Water: Critiques and Condition of Possibility” Farhana Sultana and Alex Loftus. WIREs Water 2015, 2:97–105. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1067.
iii Elizabeth Marino, “Adaptation privilege and voluntary buyouts: Perspectives on ethnocentrism in sea level rise relocation and retreat policies in the US” (2018) 49:1 Global Envtl Change from Kelsey Leonard, “WAMPUM Adaptation framework: eastern coastal Tribal Nations and sea level rise impacts on water security, Climate and Development” (2021) 13:9, Climate & Development 842
iv Margreet Zwarteveen & Rutgerd Boelens, “Defining, Researching and Struggling for Water Justice: Some Conceptual Building Blocks for Research and Action.” (2014) 39:2 Water International 143 doi:10.1080/02508060.2014.891168.
v United Nations Water, “Human rights to water and sanitation: Facts”https://www.unwater.org/water-facts/human-rights-water-and-sanitation.
vi Carina Xue Luo, The Water Crisis in Canada’s First Nations Communities: Examining the progress towards eliminating long-term drinking water advisories in Canada.
vii Unicef, Gaza’s taps running dry: Fuel crisis deepens daily struggle for families.
viii Amnesty International, Trucks, lack of water and little food: Indigenous community struggles to survive by the side of a road in Paraguay.
ix NSERC Create H20 Program for First Nations Water and Sanitation Security.
x Just Waters: Thinking with Hydro-Social Relations for a More Just and Sustainable World.
xi Aimée Craft, and Jill Blakley. In Our Backyard: Keeyask and the Legacy of Hydroelectric Development. 1st ed., University of Manitoba Press, 2022.
xii Farhana Sultana, “Water justice: why it matters and how to achieve it” (2018) 43:4 Water Intl 483 DOI: 10.1080/02508060.2018.1458272
xiv Deloitte. (2017, January 23). Thirsty for change: The untapped potential of women in urban water management.
xv United Nations. Water– at the center of the climate crisis.
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