The important scope of the right to access water
Section 27(b) of the constitution gives every individual a right to access sufficient food and water together with section 3(1) of the Water Service Act which provides that everyone has a right to access to basic water supply and basic sanitation, are interlinked with other rights of the constitution. It mainly plays a pivotal role in the socio-economic rights which are: section 26(adequate housing), and s27(health, food, and security) which are known as access rights. It also links with section 28(1)(c) on basic nutrition and s29(1)(a) on basic education which is regarded as basic rights. This points out that water is important to provide duties for basic nutrition, food preparation, food production, and for drinking purposes.
The right to access water protects, section 35(2)(e) which stipulates that everyone who is detained, including every sentenced prisoner, has a right to ‘conditions of detention that are in line with human dignity, including at least, exercise and provision, at state expense, of adequate accommodation and nutrition, reading material and immaterial treatment’. As it has been pointed out in the statement that the state should provide nutrition at its own expense, water forms part of nutrition. This right also pressures the state to provide clean water for human consumption, conserve water, and provide basic services for sanitation to secure the environment. Water is important for human survival and must be conserved against any contamination and polluted environmental doings for drinking purposes.
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Section 24 provides that everyone has a right to a clean environment that is not harmful to their health and well-being and to have the environment secured through legislative and other measures to prevent pollution and ecologically sustainable development and use of natural resources while promoting justifiable economic and social development. Water is part of the natural resources which is essential since various people still draw water from rivers, dams, or wells, usually with no alternative, an unhealthy environment would lead to a health hazard. Access to clean water would prevent health hazards.
Water secures the Natural ecosystems and is heavily dependent on it, without water all the species would not survive. Water scarcity leads to degradation, thus aggravating the water supply problems. The right to water is therefore the protection of drinking water sources. The aquatic environment is important to the ecology of the vectors of diseases such as Mosquitoes which transmit Malaria and other transmitters of diseases such as schistosomiasis. The hydrological and demographic changes caused by waterborne diseases, and will unevenly undermine the health stems of the various groups.
In the SERAC case, the plaintiffs laid a complaint of illnesses related to their polluted water and soil, including gastrointestinal issues, skin diseases, cancer, and respiratory ailments. After they issued the first steps to be by the government to correct the situation complained of, the commission stated that government duties associated with the right to health and a healthy environment for its people consisted of the minimum; taking reasonable precautions to avoid contaminating the environment in a way that endangers the physical, mental and environmental health of its people, to ensure that private parties do not systemically endanger the health of the citizens and environment, and to provide its people with information about environmental health risks and meaningful opportunities to take part in development decisions.
The right to access water Is important for food security. Domestic water is used for household food production in most rural areas where they practice activities such as horticulture, crop irrigation, and small-scale commercial activities. These activities may be the sole income from the household through food security and without the use of water, poverty would strike many households. Water may also be essential for farming whereby a large-scale water supply for agricultural production systems produced food for local consumption or for export and trade to food-deficient regions. Moreover, water is used for aquaculture and livestock watering to make more food, and water is needed for food hygiene to ensure that food is safer to eat.
The right to access water is important for health purposes. Access to water reduces the risk of water-related illness. The most known infectious waterborne diseases are; diarrhea, typhoid, and cholera which often lead to death. Access to water also prevents death by dehydration. Regulation 3 of 2001 stipulates that (b)(I) a minimum quantity of potable water of 25 liters per person per day6 kilolitres per household per month, s3(b)(ii) within 200 meters of a household, and s3(b)(iii) with an effect such that no consumer is without supply for more than seven full days in any year. The minimum quantity of water required for each person to consume prevents the effects of dehydration, including potential life-threatening.
Water is essential for cultural practices. The right to water needs access to traditional water sources to be secured from unlawful encroachment and pollution. This applies mainly to the access of indigenous peoples to the water resources on their ancestral lands and also embraces the right to follow traditional cultural actions, such as performing religious ceremonies using water for example the Hindu washing rites on the river Ganges in India. The right to water  is violated if the state fails to take important steps to safeguard the cultural identity of many ethnic or religious groups. This includes the destruction, expropriation, or pollution of water associated with cultural sites by the government or non-state actors, or the offering by the government authorities of land titles to individual members of indigenous peoples when these individuals traditionally take a group approach to use resources, thereby endangers the culture and existence of the whole group.
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