Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Mehta, Lyla

Titel

Water and Human Development: Unpacking Scarcity and 'Water Crises'

Ist Teil von

• Routledge Handbook of Water and Development, 2024, Vol.1, p.41-50

Auflage

1

Ort / Verlag

Routledge

Erscheinungsjahr

2024

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The chapter advances a human development approach to water scarcity and the water 'crisis'. It questions dominant portrayals of water scarcity and explores the application of the entitlements approach (EA) and capabilities approach (CA) to the water domain. It demonstrates that the EA helps go beyond per capita measurements of water scarcity and directs attention to the structural and institutional issues concerning water inequalities. The CA highlights how access may not suffice and it is key to also focus on wellbeing, the multifaceted nature of water and its role in realizing several freedoms. Both approaches help strengthen the case for the human right to water and break down the false distinction between water for domestic and productive purposes. I argue that a human development approach to water helps question the water sector's traditional focus on supply, scarcity, crises and efficiency rather than equality as well as directs attention to the needs and interests of the marginalized and excluded.