Here in the UK, we went into lockdown a year ago but the effects of the pandemic are still ongoing and acutely felt. This moment poses a good opportunity to reflect on the impacts of the pandemic to key debates on water. King’s Water member, Dr. Alex Loftus wrote a piece ‘Are We All in This Together? Covid-19 and the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation’ with collaborator, Prof Farhana Sultana.
Their article highlights the underlying inequality that existed prior to the pandemic and is a retort to the United Nations report ‘We are all in this together: Human Rights and Covid-19 Response and Recovery.’ Written by current UN Secretary-General António Guterres, the report discusses the need for perseverance and the need to uphold human rights during the pandemic. Loftus and Sultana have pointed out that systemic socio-economic inequality has not fostered a feeling of “we are all in this together.” Rather, underlying inequality prior to the pandemic has encouraged the virus to discriminate against marginalized groups and leaving their privileged counterparts relatively unscathed. Although “solidarity” and “mutual aid” will be needed to survive the pandemic, the human right to water and sanitation has not garnered the same level of urgency as civil and political rights. Indeed, both authors suggest that civil and political rights cannot be secured without providing equitable access to freshwater.
You can read the book containing Alex’s piece as well as a book review here.
Dr. Alex Loftus is Reader in Political Ecology at King’s College London. His research extends to issues of water privatisation, financialization of water infrastructure and water in post-apartheid South Africa.
