Human security and access to water, sanitation, and hygiene: exploring the drivers and nexus

Water security challenges are mostly covered in the literature on the food and energy nexus. This chapter however adopts a broader conception of water security in relation to lack of access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), and argues that the human rights approach could be instrumental in addressing the drivers that hinder access to WASH. Through policy analysis and literature review the chapter addresses the following research questions: a) What is access to WASH? b) What are the drivers of poor access to WASH? c) What are the multi-level human security implications of the lack of access to WASH? d) What improvements can be made in the post-2015 development agenda to address the drivers and the related human security challenges? The chapter essentially illustrates the need to translate global human rights norms into contextually appropriate operational targets and instruments for policy implementation at the national and local levels.