Broadening the water affordability approach to monitor the human right to water

Abstract

Multidimensional poverty measurements at the international level include the indicator of having access to safe drinking water within the optimal living standards. At the European level, though, the reference is to the overall affordability of the urban services provided to a household. As a multidimensional concept, though, water poverty must include lack of access (or even poor access) to water services. This paper assumes that the lack of access to certain levels of water services should be considered poverty in access to water, and proposes a multidimensional characterization of levels of service that takes as a reference the specific normative component of the human right to water. In other words, poverty in access to water is matched with deprivation in the realization of a human right. To exemplify the approach, the paper presents a proposal for an evaluative framework for the case of a household in a dense urban area in southern Europe.