Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : the right to water in context / Malcolm Langford and Anna F.S. Russell -- Water allocation, customary practice and the right to water : rethinking the regulatory model / Barbara van Koppen -- Indigenous peoples and the sale of water rights : the case of Chile / Domingo A. Lovera Parmo -- Water for food : a human rights perspective / Inga T. Winkler -- Tapping transboundary waters : implications of the right to water for states sharing international watercourses / Anna F.S. Russell and Stephen McCaffrey -- Climate change and the right to water / Mac Darrow -- Determining progress on access to water and sanitation : the case of South Africa / Jackie Dugard, Malcolm Langford and Edward Anderson -- Quantifying the affordability standard : a comparative approach / Henri Smets -- Engendering the right to water and sanitation : integrating the experiences of women and girls / Anne Hellum -- The human right to sanitation / Malcolm Langford, Jamie Bartram and Virginia Roaf -- Development cooperation and extraterritorial obligations / Ashfaq Khalfan -- The Occupied Palestinian Territory: challenges to progressive realisation / Lara El Jazairi -- Privatisation and the right to water / Malcolm Langford -- Piped water in Jakarta : a political, economic or social good? / Nicola Colbran -- Privatisation and regulatory autonomy : the right to water in international economic law / Andrew Lang -- Bilateral investment treaties and investment arbitration / Luke Eric Peterson -- A poor choice? : public policy, social choice and the human right to water / Robert A. Hope -- Socio-cultural norms, human rights and access to water and sanitation / Nandita Singh - Reflections on the right to water from a political ecology perspective : tensions in Zimbabwe's water governance / Bill Derman and Emmanuel Manzungu - The right to water in rural India and drinking water policy reforms / Philippe Cullet..

"In a short space of time, the right to water has emerged from relative obscurity to claim a prominent place in human rights theory and practice. This book explores this rise descriptively and prescriptively. It analyses the recognition, use and partly impact, of the right to water in international and comparative law, civil society mobilisation and public policy. It also scrutinises the normative implications of the right to water with a focus on challenges and puzzles it creates for law and policymaking. These questions are explored globally and comparatively within different dynamics of the sector - water allocation, water access and urban and rural water reform - and in conjunction with the right to sanitation. This multi-disciplinary volume reveals the diverse ways in which the right to water has been adopted, but also its limitations when faced with the realities of political economy, political ecology and partly, traditional legal thought." -- Publisher's website.