This guest blog is written by Professor Jill Robbie, Dr Elizabeth Lawson and Dr Luis F. Yanes as part of the SPICe Academic Fellowship Scheme. The scheme enables academics to work on projects with the Parliament in support of parliamentary scrutiny.
This is the final instalment in our four-part blog series exploring reform of water, wastewater and drainage policy in Scotland. The first blog outlined key challenges facing Scotland’s water industry. The second explored opportunities for reform and the third blog considered issues facing private water and wastewater system users.
This final blog will explore the human right to water in Scotland specifically in relation to private water supplies. This blog series accompanies a SPICe briefing ‘Scotland’s water industry: overview of regulation and key challenges’.
As with all guest blogs, what follows are the views of the authors and not those of SPICe, or of the Scottish Parliament.
The human right to water under international law
Water is essential to life. Under international law, the human right to water is recognised as emanating from the right to an adequate standard of living, as well as being crucial to the rights to life, health and human dignity.
The UK has committed to comply with the human right to water through several international treaties. These include, the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
There are a range of legal obligations attached to the human right to water which countries need to comply with at all times and in all circumstances. These obligations – called minimum core obligations – include:
- Ensuring access to at least a minimum amount of water that can be sufficient for safe personal use;
- Ensuring that access to water facilities and services are provided in a non-discriminatory way;
- Ensuring physical access to water facilities or services that can provide sufficient, safe, and regular water.
The human right to water in practice
Water services need to be available, of good quality, and accessible to comply with obligations under international law. In practice, this means:
- Availability: water supply for each person must be sufficient and continuous for personal and domestic uses. This ordinarily includes drinking, personal sanitation, washing of clothes, food preparation and personal and household hygiene.
- Quality: the water required for personal or domestic use must be safe – free from micro-organisms, chemical substances, and radiological hazards – and should be of an acceptable colour, odour, and taste.
- Accessibility: water facilities and services, must be within safe physical reach for all sections of the population, and must be affordable for all, including all direct and indirect costs and charges associated with securing water.
The WHO’s 2022 Guidelines for drinking water quality recommends the use of a holistic approach to the risk assessment and management of drinking water supplies. It provides a conceptual framework for the implementation of safe drinking water practices. The framework consists of:
- Health based targets established by a competent health authority;
- Adequate and properly managed systems – inclusive of adequate infrastructure, proper monitoring and effective planning and management; and
- A system of independent surveillance.
Examples of the legal and institutional complexities of the implementation of the human right to water can be seen internationally. In 2012, Mexico adopted a constitutional guarantee of the human right to water, as a reform of Article 4 of its Constitution. However, a lack of consensus as to what is required to implement the human right to water meant that the General Water Law was not introduced until November 2024.
Public and private water supplies in Scotland
In Scotland, although there are statutory protections for those connected to the public water supply, the human right to water has not yet been incorporated into domestic law. While the UK is obliged under international law to respect, protect, and fulfil the human right to water, there is no legal mechanism to uphold the human right to water in the Scottish courts.
While most of Scotland is served by Scottish Water, around 3.5% of the Scottish population are not connected to the public drinking water network, and instead use private water supplies. This equates to 23,034 private supplies which serve just over 190,000 people.
Populations in Scotland which are most vulnerable to an insecure, unsafe and insufficient water supply are those who are served by a private water supply, which are mostly located in rural areas. Private water supply users are responsible for the management and maintenance of their own supply.
Private water supplies are categorised as either:
- Regulated: larger supplies which are part of a commercial or public activity; or,
- Exempt/Type B supplies: smaller domestic supplies which comprise 77.6% of all private water supplies.
The latter are not required to conduct risk assessments or carry out regular testing. Therefore, for most private water supplies there is lack of certainty over the quality of water that people are drinking.
Compliance data from the Drinking Water Quality Regulator (DWQR) shows that in 2023, of those that were sampled,17.9% of exempt private water supplies failed compliance tests for E.coli. In comparison, of the 26,969 tests for E.coli in 2023 in the public water supplies, only one failed the test and this was thought to be caused by contamination of the sample at the outdoor sample point.
A 2020 report by the Centre of Expertise for Waters (CREW) identified that water quality problems for private water supplies may be worsened by water scarcity events and low water table levels, due to sediments in water supplies being disturbed with falling water levels, and decreased dilution of sewage discharged to rivers. The challenges associated with operating a private water supply and the increasing impacts of a changing climate are discussed in the second blog in this series.
Is Scotland meeting its obligations to private water supply users?
It could be argued that the human right to water is not being met for people served by private water supplies in Scotland. Private water supply users are not guaranteed available, accessible and high-quality water. While connecting every single household in Scotland to a centralised water supply may not be feasible, there are actions which can be taken to ensure those on private water supplies have access to clean and safe water.
In 2024, the WHO published guidelines specifically relating to drinking water quality for small water supplies. The guidelines are focused on addressing the specific context-based challenges often faced by smaller supplies, which include household managed supplies, community managed supplies and professionally managed supplies. Recommendations from the guidelines include:
- Establish regulations for small water supplies that promote risk management practices.
- Adopt regulatory approaches that promote a shift towards professionalised operation and management of small water supplies.
- Practice risk-based surveillance, including verifying risk management practice by water suppliers and applying limited resources to address priority public health concerns.
- Strengthen systems of data sharing and use to inform decision making and action at all levels.
Regular testing of all private water supplies in Scotland would help ensure that drinking water is free of contamination. Risk assessments would inform management of the land around private water supplies to help prevent contamination. A risk register of vulnerable users would provide a prioritisation of action and supply to users when there are water scarcity or pollution events. Without clear obligations to all water users, as is articulated in a human rights framework, those relying on private water supplies are in danger of being further overlooked and marginalised.
Proposed Human Rights Bill for Scotland: an opportunity for change?
A written consultation on proposals for a new Human Rights Bill for Scotland in 2023 suggested a right to safe and sufficient water as a substantive aspect of the right to a healthy environment, as well as being part of the right to an adequate standard of living. Independent analysis of the consultation responses showed that of 191 responses, 82% of people agreed with the proposed approach.
Incorporating further human rights into domestic law comes with constitutional challenges in Scotland, as was seen through the litigation regarding the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, the Scottish Government remains committed to introducing a Human Rights Bill in the next Parliament Session, depending on the outcome of the election. In July 2025, the Scottish Government published a discussion paper outlining the current thinking on a proposed new Human Rights Bill for Scotland.
Scotland has traditionally been viewed as a water-rich country, and therefore it may be surprising to discover that people in rural places suffer with access to clean, safe water. However, this gives all the more reason to ensure that the human right to water is fulfilled in relation to everyone in Scotland, regardless of where they live.
Incorporating the human right to water into Scots law would not only acknowledge the obligation to all water users, but also provide a framework for ensuring that rural communities receive fair and adequate access to safe water.
Professor Jill Robbie, Professor of Property Law and the Natural Environment, University of Glasgow
Dr Elizabeth Lawson, SPICe fellow and post-doctoral research associate Newcastle University
Dr Luis F. Yanes, Guest Lecturer in International Human Rights Law, University of Edinburgh.
Title image: Low water levels at Backwater reservoir, north west Angus, August 2025. Credit: Scottish Water