Justiciability of the right to water and sanitation in Sierra Leone

The old African adage, “water is of life”, epitomizes the essence and value attached to safe drinking water and sanitation.  Access to safe drinking water and sanitation is undoubtedly and unarguably quintessential for healthy life styles. In 2002, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (hereafter CESCR) adopted its general comment No. 15 on the right to water, defined as the right of everyone “to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses.”  Sadly, in Africa and elsewhere, ‘unwilling and unavailable’ statecraft’s have failed to provide ‘sufficient, safe, acceptable, accessible and affordable’ water to their people particularly the poor, vulnerable and marginalized groups including women and children.  In a report jointly published by UNICEF and WHO, “884 million people do not have access to improved sources of drinking water, while 2.5 billion lack access to improved sanitation facilities”[i].  The report further argues that “While these numbers shed light on a worrying situation, the reality is much worse, as millions of poor people living in informal settlements are simply missing from national statistics”[ii].

Sierra Leone is no exception to this worrying statistic where access to safe drinking water is a ‘privilege’ as opposed to a fundamental ‘right’; a country where road ‘reconstruction’ is prioritized over water supply and sanitation; a country where women and children will queue endlessly an routinely to fetch 20 litres of water; and a country where university students do not have access to pipe borne water but live in squalid hostels; and ironically, a country naturally endowed with heavy seasonal rainfalls and rivers of fresh water. This article presents international standards on the right to water and sanitation to which Sierra Leone is a state party to.  Further, the article briefly discusses water resources management and presents a contextual argument for the justiciability of the right to water and sanitation in Sierra Leone within the context of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (hereafter, ICESCR) obliges states parties to “recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing and to the continuous improvement of living conditions”.  As pointed out in General Comment No.5 of the Committee; “the right to water clearly falls within the category of guarantees essential for securing an adequate standard of living, particularly since it is one of the most fundamental conditions for survival”[iii].  This, as it were, applies to everyone within a state jurisdiction and Sierra Leone being a state party to ICESCR is obliged under international law to provide safe drinking water and sanitation for her people.

In particular, the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) under article 14 (2h) obliges states parties to create the enabling environment for rural women “to enjoy adequate living conditions, particularly in relation to housing, sanitation, electricity and water supply, transport and communications”[iv].  The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women considered that this article obliges States parties to take all appropriate measures to ensure adequate living conditions in relation to water and sanitation, which are critical for the prevention of diseases and the promotion of good health care[v].  Furthermore, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) under article 24 (1) obliges states parties to “recognize the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health and to facilities for the treatment of illness and rehabilitation of health” while paragraph (2) obliges states parties to “pursue full implementation of this right and, in particular, shall take appropriate measures”:  “to combat disease and malnutrition, including within the framework of primary health care, through, inter alia,…the provision of adequate nutritious foods and clean drinking water”[vi].  The Committee on CRC explicitly states that “under article 24 States have a responsibility to ensure access to clean drinking water and that such access is particularly essential for young children’s health”[vii].

Sierra Leone, unlike other West African countries, is naturally endowed with aquifers, rivers and rainfall is well cultivated and can serve a population of 5.6 million.  However, as a consequent of unwilling, incapable and incompetent Ministries, Departments and Agencies charged with the responsibilities to providing safe drinking water and sanitation, Sierra Leoneans, (women and children in particular) are ‘denied’ the fundament right to water.  The rural poor, constituting 70% of the population do not have access to pipe borne water neither do they live in a sanitized environment.  The national average water supply coverage is 22% and ranges from 14% for Kailahun to 46% for the Western Area, while sanitation ranges from 6% in Kailahun to 15% in the Western Area (UN Economic Commission for Africa 2007, Water Supply and Sanitation Policy for Sierra Leone).

Reasons for this appalling statistic on water and sanitation in Sierra Leone includes but is not limited to; inadequate rainfall water storage systems; inability to handle the challenges posed by climate change and deforestation that leads to depletion of water resources; and the inability of Guma Valley Water Company (GVWC) to prevent excessive water wastage along the various water supply transmission and distribution systems.  The table below describes water and sanitation distribution in the country as of 2003. Nine years after this survey, the situation on the right to water and sanitation remain the same in some regions of the country, while in other regions, access to clean and safe drinking water is a challenge. In the Western Area for example, the on-going road infrastructural projects arbitrarily prevent residents to access water sometimes for three months (as it was the case for residents of Byrne Lane, West end of Freetown)

Water Supply and Sanitation Nationwide

Source: DEPA January, 2004

As the table above shows, successive governments of Sierra Leone have failed in their international obligation to ensuring and providing quality water, acceptable sanitation, as well as the accessibility, availability, and affordability of water[viii].  Invariably, Sierra Leone is unlikely to meet target 7 of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) which urges Sierra Leone and the international community to “halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation”.  Within the context of CEDAW and CRC which Sierra Leone is a state party and entrenched the provisions of these Conventions in her municipal laws, it is high time the government of Sierra Leone unequivocally and proactively takes measures to provide safe drinking water and acceptable sanitation.

Practically and legally, social mobilization groups such as NGOs/CSOs should consider the possibilities of litigation processes for the enjoyment of the right to safe drinking water and sanitation.  As discussed earlier, two legal instruments relating to women’s and children’s human rights can be used.  The domestication of CEDAW in the form of three related Gender Acts of 2007 and the CRC domesticated in 2007, form a firm basis for litigation.  Although the country’s jurisprudence on justiciability of rights is weak, unavailable and incompetent, nonetheless, this approach is worthwhile so as to save thousands of Sierra Leonean children dying of water borne diseases in Kroo Bay (the largest slum in Freetown) and across the country.

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