Turn to your Duties to retain your Rights: Critical analysis on Right to Water

Abstract

The outstanding importance of water has pronounced many of scholars in various occasions. Water is necessary for the survival of entire life, yet over one billion people do not have available sources of clean water for drinking. People those who are undergoing water scarcity menace tend to claim right to water from governments without considering their obligations to uphold the right. However this situation should be observed in reciprocal manner. Right to water is entirely based on the availability of the resource. Without prejudice entire mankind is responsible altogether to safeguard water resources. Presently water is facing for a huge threat of pollution and over extraction which was created and responsible by the mankind themselves and the mankind rapidly reaching towards an era of the water scarcity. Immerging trend to expand the Right to Life which has been recognized by the Article 3 of the UDHR accommodated the Right to Water by establishing state obligations through several other instruments such as Treaties and their Protocols, Regional instruments and International declarations, norms and other standards. Hereby all the states are compelled to provide continuous water supply and to facilitate various other integrated water resource management systems in order to enhance the infrastructure facilities to uphold water rights. Hence it is essential to turn towards the duties and responsibilities of the people being right holders to become eligible to claim their rights from governments being duty bearers. This paper expects to investigate the possibility to assign duties upon general public to safeguard water resources mutually as to preserve their right to water. The main objective of this paper to convince the contribution of the community to counter future challenges of fresh water and indicate the necessity of contribution to preserve fresh water resources. Further this research expects to emphasize the necessity of reciprocal approach to claim water rights and to elaborate the mutual understanding between right holders and duty bearers in terms of water rights.