Water as a Human Right

The Human Right to Water, passed by the legislature in 2012 and signed by Governor Brown, was a great policy idea with almost no teeth.  Community members and advocates worked for years to gain recognition for water as a human right, with our first bill, AB 1242 (Ruskin, 2009) vetoed by then-Governor Schwarzenegger and its successor, AB 685 (Eng, 2012) taking the full 2-year session to pass. The legislation was short and to the point:

It is hereby declared to be the established policy of the state that every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes.

The implementation language is pretty vague:

All relevant state agencies, including the department, the state board, and the State Department of Public Health, shall consider this state policy when revising, adopting, or establishing policies, regulations, and grant criteria when those policies, regulations, and criteria are pertinent to the uses of water described in this section.

The key to this legislation was not its language or clarity.  The key was that hundreds of community members who lacked safe drinking water spent years advocating for the Human Right to Water—and when the legislation finally passed, their celebration was heartfelt and well-earned, as impacted communities acted on their own behalf to address their problems.

Since that emotional victory, it’s been a slow but steady march towards universal access to water.

• In February 2016, The State Water Board adopted a resolution for implementation of the Human Right to Water.
• In 2018, the Legislature appropriated $2 million to the State Water Board to create a Needs Assessment of the state’s drinking water systems and to identify the population lacking safe drinking water. The first report came out in 2021 and has been updated annually since then.
• In 2019, the legislature established the SAFER Fund, which receives $130 million annually from the state’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to “help water systems provide an adequate and affordable supply of safe drinking water in both the near and long term.” The Fund is intended to fill gaps that prevent at-risk and failing systems from accessing safe drinking water. Funding can be used for interim water supplies, planning and engineering studies, legal needs and community outreach.

As of 2025, the State Water Board has helped over 900,000 Californians achieve safe drinking water.  But more needs to be done.  A little over 800,000 Californians still lack access to safe drinking water; another 1.5 million live in communities that are at risk of losing access to safe drinking water.

Clean Water Action and allies worked with the legislature this year to extend the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and its SAFER component, originally slated to end in 2030, through 2045. That means nearly $2 billion in new funding to ensure safe drinking water.  Combined with other funding sources, like state bonds and federal grants, this funding will go a long way to ensuring the Human Right to Water.