Research paper: Disadvantaged unincorporated communities and the struggle for water justice in california
The notion of access to water for drinking and sanitation as being a human right – not a privilege or a commodity to be bought and sold – is based on the understanding that water is essential for life itself and should not be subject to the dictates of the market. This understanding parallels other treatments of vital resources such as housing and healthcare and has been codified in multiple United Nations frameworks. Human rights have been less common as a basis for public policy in the United States, where the more limited concept of civil rights has predominated. This has begun to change, most notably with the passage of California’s 2012 Assembly Bill 685 on the human right to water…