The collapse of the hydrological system is imminent unless the world listens to minority and indigenous people as part of efforts to redress the ongoing global water crisis, says a new report.
The report by the Minority Rights Group (MRG) reveals that human activities have led to disruptions in the global water cycle, leading to enormous consequences to millions of people.
Titled ‘Minority and Indigenous Trends Report 2023: People – Process – Planet,’ the report sheds light on the effect of this situation on minority communities, who it shows bear the brunt of the fallout. It takes an indebt look at the linkage of the situation to colonialism, which led to the global commercialization and predation of water and exposes how it’s used as a weapon for the marginalization of minority groups.
The 280-page document is the latest of MRG’s annual report which looks at a range of topics affecting minorities globally. The water focus of this edition was informed by the ongoing global water crisis, at the heart of which lies many of the most critical challenges facing humanity, like climate change, biodiversity loss and food insecurity, the organization said. It explores human rights implications of collapsing water systems.
The report highlights how systemic discrimination has left many minority and indigenous communities with precarious access to safe drinking water as governments and private water companies fail to invest enough resources in the areas where they live, even when they often face displacement by these water infrastructure projects that do not benefit them. It further highlights that many minority and indigenous populations bear the brunt of water-related disasters, such as floods and drought, while facing exclusion in the emergency relief efforts that follow.
“Indigenous peoples’ deep spiritual connections to the waters on their traditional lands and their centuries’ long experience of managing water sources render them especially vulnerable when these interlinkages are disrupted,” reads a summary of the document unveiled on Tuesday, June 20th.
The report brings together voices and knowledge systems of over 35 indigenous and minority wisdom keepers at planetary level, for real and effective action against the water crisis. It entails a ‘Pledge’ written by Rajendra Singh, known as the waterman of India, who restored the climate of Rajasthan using the traditional system of jodahs, as well as a piece by world renowned water activist Vandana Shiva. The foreword is written by UN Special rapporteur on Water, Pedro Arrojo-Agudo.
Also contained in the report are three in-depth chapters, 35 case studies detailing the 10 most pressing intersectional aspects of the global water crisis, like access, sanitation, pollution, floods, drought, infrastructure, conflict, usage, governance and culture.
Collectively, these write-ups offer several recommendations for governments, corporations and international organisations such as UN agencies to consider as a matter of urgency.
Tuesday’s launch was done online, followed by three offline launch events in London, Nairobi and Budapest.
Claire Thomas, Co-Executive Director at Minority Rights Group, said during the online event that part of the solution to the water crisis is listening to minorities and learning from them how to live with the environment in harmony.
“The water crisis is not just about climate change, it’s about people in powerful positions making short term and self-interested decisions, often choosing profit over equity, inclusion or sustainability,” said Thomas. According to him, listening to minorities and indigenous peoples is not only about equity, but also about learning from them how to live in harmony with the environment.
“The solutions are right before our noses. Indigenous peoples and minority groups are offering water conservancy and water regeneration systems of knowledge that will help restore water cycles if adopted, which based on thousands of years of practice are evidence of achieving climate cooling, mitigation of extreme water events, and climate resilience,” adds Nicolas Salazar Sutil, Commissioning Editor at Minority Rights Group.
MRG is an international human rights organisation, headquartered in London, with offices in Budapest and Kampala, whose mission is to secure rights for ethnic, national, religious, linguistic minorities, and indigenous peoples around the world.
For over 50 years, MRG has released several publications in the form of reports and briefings, documenting the challenges faced by minority groups worldwide. Previous publications have looked at issues that include the plight of religious minorities, ethnic minorities and people from minority communities seeking self-determination.
‘Minorities and Indigenous Trends’ is the organization’s flagship report which has been published yearly since 2006, with the exception of 2017, looking at issues like work, Covid-19, technology, climate justice and migration.
MRG says this year’s focus was inspired by severe weather events in the past year, as witnessed in cyclone-hit Pacific; floods in Australia, Pakistan and Africa; droughts in parts of Central, East and Southern Africa, the Americas, Central Asia, Europe and the Middle East, which prompted many experts to declare that the planet’s water cycle had been severely disrupted due to human activity.
“With ‘water’, we were getting the terrible reports from the floods in Pakistan of minorities being left without emergency relief, as well as similar reports from other parts of the world. Droughts were very pressing, of course, as well as the reports from Jackson, Mississippi of a predominantly Black city that was running out of water. It just felt like we had a moral obligation to focus on that topic,” Carl Söderbergh, Director of Policy & Advocacy at MRG, told ManoReporters.
He said the fact that the UN was going to hold a world Water Conference this year was also considered.
Of major concern in the report is an abuse of the rights of those who live closest to water and often furthest away from infrastructure – minorities and indigenous peoples. The authors argue that not only is it not enough to say that these people hold the key to climate solutions, but that water justice must also focus on the position and responsibility of majority groups.
“It is imperative that water-guzzling and water-polluting corporations and the systems that support them are made accountable, taxable, punishable and socially responsible for this injustice,” the report says.
“The core message is: we are also running out of time. Urgent action is required to face an existential threat. The most vulnerable, as this report shows, are women, children and persons with disabilities in minority and indigenous communities.”
Among several recommendations offered by the authors is the need for governments and corporations to uphold the fundamental right of every person to safe drinking water and sanitation, regardless of their stataus, vis-à-vis race, ethnicity, religion, language, caste, descent, etc.
It also called for the upholding of indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination, particularly their right to free, prior and informed consent, before any action is taken that affects their ancestral domains and their access to water and aquatic ecosystems.
UN agencies, international financial institutions, other international and regional organizations, and NGOs, are also urged to carry out human rights due diligence in order to identify, prevent, mitigate and account for any adverse impacts of their activities on minority and indigenous communities’ right to safe drinking water and sanitation.
