Selected Water and Sanitation Law Instruments Around the World

National legislation is the outcome of processes, both local and the global. The interaction and influence between the domestic and the international legal systems, is mutually enriching. Certain aspects of water management have first been the product of legal initiatives of a state, seeking to address local problems. International conferences and the sessions of international organs, tackling environmental, development or human rights issues, provide a framework for their discussion and for the exchange of information, techniques and standards that ultimately strive for the coordinated solution of common problems affecting different jurisdictions. As a result of this process, states have subsequently moulded their legislation following the trends that are perceived in force, globally. They have passed legislation incorporating in their domestic legal systems - with varying degrees of success - the consensus reached internationally.

Water and sanitation are increasingly the subject of all-encompassing legislation that tries to address and coordinate the different uses, it is put to. Wide-ranging water acts often ascribe the property rights of water to the state or to the private owners of the land, under specific circumstances. In cases where it is declared a public commodity, the grant of concessions or licenses to individuals is addressed. A state agency is typically created and charged with the task of surveying the status of the resource (monitoring the quality and quantity available of water) and dealing with the administration associated with licenses and concessions. The newer legislations are decisively strict in protecting the national stocks of water, not only by embracing the sustainable management of the resource, but also by punishing more severely the pollution and any other prejudice, inflicted to the resource. Further, several acts explicitly acknowledge that the state has the duty of granting access to freshwater to the population. In addition, sanitation is increasingly often the focus of legal instruments.

The selected water and sanitation law instruments listed include a diverse set of recent water and sanitation laws from countries around the world. For water and sanitation law instruments in India please follow this link.