Water justice

Water justice is the principle that the access, use, control and distribution of water should be guaranteed in a fair, democratic and sustainable way for everyone, regardless of social class, gender, ethnicity, place of residence or purchasing power. It recognises water as a fundamental human right and a common good, not as a commodity subject only to market rules.

Water justice stands against management models that concentrate power in a few hands, privatise water sources without public consultation, or exclude rural communities, indigenous peoples and peri-urban areas from access to basic services.

Why is it needed?

Unequal access to water is one of the clearest expressions of environmental and social injustice. According to the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme, around 2.2 billion people still lack safely managed drinking water and roughly 3.5 billion lack safely managed sanitation (2022 data). In many regions these gaps are not due to a lack of water, but to exclusionary and poorly regulated management.

Water justice seeks to reverse this structural pattern by recognising water as a right, promoting community participation in its management and redistributing resources fairly between sectors and territories.

Key dimensions of water justice

Water justice covers several interrelated dimensions that need to be addressed together:

1. Distributive justice

The fair distribution of water resources between users. This means guaranteeing sufficient, good-quality flows for human, ecosystem, productive and cultural uses, without institutionalised privileges or access conditioned by ability to pay.

2. Procedural justice

Ensuring that everyone, especially the most vulnerable, can take part in decision-making on water management. This requires institutional transparency, access to information, effective consultation mechanisms and protection of collective rights.

3. Justice of recognition

Recognising the plurality of values, knowledge and practices around water, including the ancestral uses of indigenous peoples, community-based management systems and non-utilitarian views of the resource.

4. Restorative justice

Repairing historical or ongoing harm caused by exclusionary water policies or extractive activities, through compensatory investment, the restitution of territories and the restoration of degraded ecosystems.

Common injustices in water management

Some of the most frequent forms of water injustice in local and international contexts include:

• Granting extractive concessions without prior consultation of communities.
• Mass water disconnections for non-payment without viable alternatives.
• Exclusion of women and indigenous peoples from water governance bodies.
• Privatisation of public sources without social regulation mechanisms.
• Pollution of rivers or aquifers with an unequal impact on vulnerable populations.

These situations are not accidental, but the result of development models that prioritise private profit over the common good. Water justice aims to dismantle these structures and replace them with democratic, redistributive and resilient systems.

Tools to promote water justice

Applying water justice requires regulatory, financial, social and ecological instruments. Examples include:

• Constitutional recognition of water as a human right and common good.
• Participatory hydro-social planning at river basin level.
• Participatory water budgeting with a territorial focus.
• Progressive tariffs that guarantee free basic access and discourage waste.
• Strengthening community-based water management networks.
• Citizen monitoring of water quality and flows.
• Restoration of aquatic ecosystems with strong local involvement.

In regions such as Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, where communities have developed their own forms of water management, water justice also means protecting these models from legal dispossession or disguised commodification.

Water justice in the climate context

Climate change deepens existing injustices: prolonged droughts, extreme events and hydrological unpredictability hit hardest those with the fewest resources to adapt. Any climate strategy must therefore explicitly incorporate water justice criteria.

This means that climate adaptation funds, green infrastructure programmes and regulatory reforms should prioritise those who suffer most from water insecurity, not only those with the greatest capacity to deliver projects. It is closely linked to broader climate justice.

Connection with the ESG approach

In business, water justice means accepting that operating in contexts of exclusion or scarcity carries significant reputational, regulatory and social risks. Companies that extract water without local dialogue, pollute sources or ignore communities can face operational blockages, social conflict or the loss of their social licence to operate.

Including water justice in ESG reporting means going beyond efficiency: it requires accountability for the distributive impact of operations, transparency about concessions and genuine participation processes with affected groups.

Towards a new water paradigm

Water justice is not a moral add-on or an obstacle to development: it is an essential condition for sustainability and social peace. In a world increasingly affected by water stress and water-related conflict, guaranteeing the right to water with equity and democracy will be one of the great challenges of the 21st century, alongside building genuine water security for all.

At Manglai we help companies measure their environmental impact and prepare their sustainability reporting, including how they assess and disclose their water-related risks. Discover how Manglai can help you.