Q&A: Léo Heller on 10 years of the human right to water

ALICANTE, Spain — Menstrual hygiene management and access to water and sanitation for underserved populations are two issues that have gained more awareness since the human right to water and sanitation was recognized by the United Nations General Assembly 10 years ago, according to Léo Heller, former U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation. Heller held the voluntary position — which sits in the special procedures body of the U.N. Human Rights Council — for the maximum two terms and was succeeded this month by Spanish professor and ecologist Pedro Arrojo-Agudo. In his six years, the elected independent produced 12 thematic reports, advised on issues pertaining to the human right to water, and investigated any violations. He said some things have significantly improved during that time. “I would say that some groups and some needs [have become] increasingly more visible in this period,” Heller told Devex. He listed the water and sanitation needs of refugees, migrants, people who are experiencing homelessness, and those living in prisons as examples. “These are some positive changes. ... But we have a long way to go in terms of fully incorporating the human rights to water and sanitation worldwide,” he added. Today, 1 in 3 people still lack access to safe drinking water, and 4.2 billion people lack access to safe sanitation. Speaking to Devex, Heller discussed how the COVID-19 pandemic has helped highlight the WASH sector’s biggest gaps, the key challenges it faces, and how he has seen the sector change. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. What are the biggest takeaways or achievements you're walking away with from your time as a special rapporteur? It's hard to identify one or two main activities, but as a whole I think that the multiple reports are very important. … I tried in the reports to cover some aspects [that are] not necessarily very well understood from the perspective of human rights. One example is regulation. Regulation is … often addressed through an economic perspective, looking at the economic sustainability of the provider. My message in the report is that the regulator should be a key player in promoting human rights. The other issues are the country visits. We know that governments have limited global impact, but the impact on the given country can be important. … Reports of country visits were important not only in showing governments what they need to do, but also to involve and engage civil society in pushing the governments. What were the biggest challenges you faced? As one person ... how to prioritize what to say, where to say [it, and] when to say [it] is a challenge. The big issue is how to make an impact. It's not easy to assess the impact of six years of activities of the rapporteur, and maybe some of the impacts will be not visible in the short term. They can have an impact in the long term. For instance, the thematic reports can be a reference for several aspects of the struggle in favor of human rights. How have you seen the water and sanitation landscape change during your time as special rapporteur? I issued a statement on the 10th anniversary [of the recognition of water and sanitation as a human right] where I did an analysis on what we achieved in the 10 years since the adoption of the resolution. … One [achievement] certainly is the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals, the 2030 Agenda. The two targets more related to water and sanitation — 6.1 and 6.2 — are very well aligned with the language of the human rights for water and sanitation. I think this is great. How the targets are monitored are not necessarily fully aligned with human rights, but this is another issue. There are some achievements in terms of legal obligations. Some countries have included, in their constitutions or in the national legislation, the human right to water or sanitation or both. But there are not many. Some groups of institutions [and] some regulators are more aligned with human rights. There are also some achievements in terms of how the civil society organizations are using the human rights framework in their struggles and in their language. This is important. “These are some positive changes. ... But we have a long way to go in terms of fully incorporating the human rights to water and sanitation worldwide.” --— Léo Heller, former U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation Looking ahead to the next 10 years, what do you think are going to be the biggest challenges? Bridging gaps, because the water and sanitation sector is extremely unequal or extremely unjust in almost all countries. If we look at the statistics — for instance, the report of the monitoring of the SDGs … in almost all countries, there is a huge gap between urban and rural populations in terms of access to services between quintiles of wealth. Also — this is not very, very extensively covered in the report — but there is an interesting example showing how the lack of access impacts mostly women and girls. So the gender dimension, Indigenous people compared with non-Indigenous people, migrants and refugees, people [who are homeless] — there are very clear groups of neglect that are unserved or underserved much more than the traditional populations. This is my main concern for the next period: to bridge those gaps. Has COVID-19 helped to highlight the injustice that there is in the sector and spark some progress? Yes, I'm sure about that. We have [had] some months living with COVID-19, and we can see that these concerns have been raised in several countries. But what is not very clear is what will happen in the future — how these concerns raised by the pandemic will be taken up by governments in the future. Because we know that the governments will need to address other types of problems, such as the economic crisis. I don't know what will happen. For sure, the concern was raised by the pandemic, but the future is very, very uncertain.