Advancing the progressive realisation of the human rights to water and sanitation is one of the guiding principles of the Fund’s interventions. This implies that populations are provided with water services that are sufficient, wholesome and acceptable (i.e., of an adequate colour, odour and taste), physically accessible and affordable – principles that also apply to sanitation services.

To promote this progress, one of the activities carried out in 2024 has been the presentation of the Tool for the Incorporation of the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation in the Management of Rural Municipalities (AquaDHAS) during the International Water Week organised by SIWI in Stockholm.

This tool, developed throughout 2023 and 2024 with the collaboration of the NGO ONGAWA and the technical support of the public company Tragsatec, is available on the AECID website free of charge for all municipalities wishing to use it.

The tool allows small municipalities to be aware of their obligations with regard to the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation (HRWS) and establish a roadmap to improve the provision of municipal drinking water, sanitation and hygiene services. The app, divided into separate modules for water and sanitation, makes it easier for municipal governments to carry out a self-diagnosis process to know the status of compliance with each of the categories that make up both rights (access, availability, quality/safety, affordability, acceptability and cross-cutting principles).

Once the categories with the greatest difficulties have been spotted, the Tool enables the user to work on each of them and offers a roadmap to advance in implementation from its different areas of responsibility (legislation, financing, coordination of actors, monitoring, etc.).

Each category has its own roadmap, allowing the municipality to work at its own pace, choosing the categories (access, quality, affordability…) in which it faces the greatest challenges.