5 - Business Activities with an Emphasis on Megaprojects

Summary

Even when they are not directly related to the provision of water and sanitation services, business activities can be an important driver for the realization or, more frequent, violation of the HRtWS. The different ways those economic activities engage in development projects can affect the way people, notably traditional communities, access water and sanitation services. Usually, when confronting the economic and social benefits of those projects with the human rights risks for the affected communities, the mainstream narrative overestimates the former and makes the latter invisible. Among those business activities, megaprojects have a prominent role in terms of concerns for the HRtWS.