Is water a human right?

This space of water management is fascinating.  Tshwane is not located adjacent to any major source of water.  Up until a few years ago, they were using a small, local river (Vaal River) as their primary source of water.  As demand grew, they had to setup large inter-basin schemes to transfer water from other rivers.

Their supply is over 300 million m³ but at 25% water loss every year, that's close to 80 million m³ in unaccounted for water.  Are there broken pipes, old meters, billing issues, major leaks no one knows about or are people who really need the water using it and not paying.  Which brings up an interesting global debate - is water a human right?

In 2010, the United Nations issued a resolution recognizing "the human right to water and sanitation and acknowledged that clean drinking water and sanitation are essential to the realisation of all human rights".  The South African constitution also guarantees everyone the right to "sufficient" water.

I have a feeling we will hit upon many infrastructure, technical, social, ethical issues as we get deeper.

#ibmcsc