Manual on How Service Providers And Regulators Can Reach SDG 6

Brisbane (10 October 2016): Understanding and implementing the human rights principles for drinking water and sanitation has now become easier, with the launch of the International Water Association’s Manual on the Human Rights to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation for Practitioners.

Service providers and regulators pay a central role in ensuring that the drinking water, sanitation and wastewater management targets under Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) on water and sanitation are met by 2030. The Manual spells out how this is best done.

“The Manual on Human Rights to Water explains the international legal obligations to operational policies and practices that will make universal access to water and sanitation a reality. This manual will help operators, managers and regulators make more informed decisions in their daily routines, and for the readers in general to actively engage in dialogues on the human right to water and sanitation to translate it into national and local policies, laws and regulations,” says Ger Bergkamp, Executive Director, the International Water Association.

The Manual also answers how utility managers and service providers can contribute to government efforts to strengthen legal and regulatory frameworks, how to deal with clients not paying without violating human rights principles.

A team of international experts authored the report, including lead author Robert Bos, Geneva, Switzerland; and co-authors David Alves, Lisbon, Portugal; Carolina Latorre, The Hague, Netherlands; Neil Macleod, Durban, South Africa; Gérard Payen, Paris, France; Virginia Roaf, Berlin, Germany; Michael Rouse, Oxford, UK.