Measures Companies Can Take to Protect Indigenous Water Rights

🌱 What frameworks can be useful to companies?

When approaching the protection of water, companies can, for example, turn to the Nature Future Framework for guidance. The three value perspectives encourage one to think of the intrinsic value of water (nature for nature), the utilitarian value of water (nature for society) and the value of water in relation to humans (nature as culture).[i]

🌱 What can companies do to protect water rights?

Companies play a role in land and water grabbing of Indigenous territories, which means they are therefore also in a position to be a part of the solution. To effectively uphold Indigenous rights, companies “must put in place the necessary means to ensure that indigenous peoples enjoy their human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, inclusive of an intercultural dialogue that is respectful of their ancestral worldviews, knowledge and practices”.[ii]

🌱 Why is dialogue important?

All in all, “information processes and respectful intercultural dialogue between [stakeholders] and indigenous peoples” are key “to ensure the most appropriate strategies to guarantee the potability of the water used”.[iii] In practice, this means that “in order to guarantee compliance with the rights of indigenous peoples and effective control over their territories”, companies must ensure that the Indigenous “right to free, prior and informed consent [is] implemented before and during any action that affects them, including actions that affect their water and aquatic ecosystems”.[iv]

🌱 What role do impact assessments play?

In addition to meaningful stakeholder engagement, companies should carry out thorough social and environmental impact assessments. This information then needs to be shared with relevant stakeholders and form the basis for later dialogues.

This post has been adapted from a newsletter written by Krisna Baghouzian and Christine Nikander. The newsletter titled “What role do Indigenous rights to water play in sustainable development?” was originally published in “The Just Transition Newsletter” by Palsa & Pulk.

[i] Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), Scenarios and models. https://www.ipbes.net/scenarios-models (20.03.2025).

[ii] https://www.ohchr.org/en/stories/2022/10/indigenous-peoples-face-growing-challenges-access-safe-water; The Indigenous Foundation, Lack of Clean Drinking Water in Indigenous communities. https://www.theindigenousfoundation.org/articles/lack-of-clean-drinking-water-in-indigenous-communities (19.03.2025); B.M.J. Kalpana Balasooriya et al., A review of drinking water quality issues in remote and indigenous communities in rich nations with special emphasis on Australia. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969723051847 (19.03.2025).

[iii] Pedro Arrojo Agudo, Human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation of indigenous peoples: State of affairs and lessons from ancestral cultures. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, p. 11. https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/water/2022-11-04/A-HRC-51-24-Friendly-version-EN.pdf (19.03.2025).

[iv] Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Indigenous peoples face growing challenges to access safe water. https://www.ohchr.org/en/stories/2022/10/indigenous-peoples-face-growing-challenges-access-safe-water (19.03.2025).