Global water governance and water rights through the prism of Canaan, a slum apart in Haiti

Abstract

La gobernanza mundial del agua y los derechos sobre el agua a través del prisma de Canaán, un barrio marginal de Haití

In Haitian cities, the disorganization of urban planning most often leads to the creation of new human settlements, which lack basic services, such as the provision of drinking water and sanitation. The proliferation of slums has an unfavorable effect on the hydrological cycle by reducing the permeabilized surfaces, causing significant disturbances in the recharge of groundwater. Furthermore, the impact of global changes on cities today is causing water scarcity, which makes it difficult to manage water resources effectively. Taken in the prism of environmental conditions and the way in which the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince is to be developed, this situation not only deprives the populations of the slums of this vital element, but also violates one of their fundamental rights " the right to water and sanitation ". Canaan, a human establishment created following the earthquake of January 12, 2010 by presidential decree, and inhabited by the victims of this event, constitutes in itself a real field laboratory allowing the veracity of such an assertion to be tested. The objective of this work is to analyze in the light of the major trends in global water governance, the right to water, one of the fundamental human rights, in Canaan.