The State of Honduras, within its responsibilities and in strict adherence to the promotion and defense of Human Rights, including the Human Right to Water and Sanitation, recognized by the UN since July 28, 2010, through resolution 64/292, by the United Nations General Assembly and on September 28 by the Human Rights Council in resolution A/HRC/RES/18/1, reaffirmed in the Constitution of the Republic: in Article 145 it states the following: "... Access to water and sanitation shall be declared a human right whose utilization and use shall be equitable, preferably for human consumption..."

The human right to water means that every individual has the right to a sufficient quantity of water, of quality, acceptable, physically accessible, and affordable for personal and domestic uses. The human right to sanitation means that every person, without discrimination, must have physical and economic access to sanitation services, in all spheres of life, that are safe, hygienic, socially and culturally acceptable, providing privacy and ensuring human dignity.

Critics agree that one of the greatest challenges of this century is perhaps the need to provide water for the growing world population. Water supply must meet demands for human consumption, agriculture, and industry. The outlook is so worrying that it is estimated that one sixth of the world's population lacks guaranteed access to drinking water and a large percentage of people do not have basic sanitation services. While water demand increases relative to available water resources, there is excessive exploitation of sources, as well as contamination, misuse, and waste, caused by inadequate and inefficient distribution systems with weakened government control and supervision mechanisms over the years.

Governments' capacity to provide basic sanitation services, establish comprehensive water resource management strategies, and meet water demand to improve population living standards largely depends on establishing solid and effective governance systems, as well as effective technical and legal application of regulation, control, and supervision systems for service providers at local or regional levels.

The Framework Law of the Drinking Water and Sanitation Sector (Decree No. 118-2003), regulates this sector and establishes applicable standards for these services nationwide, as a basic instrument to promote quality of life in the population and sustainable development as a generational legacy. According to Article 9, the Law establishes the creation of the Regulatory Body for Drinking Water and Sanitation Services (ERSAPS), as a decentralized entity attached to the Ministry of Health, with functional, technical, and administrative independence to exercise regulatory and control functions for drinking water and sanitation services.

After these 12 years of dictatorship, ERSAPS must restructure and improve its responsiveness to the population, its essential goal compliance, user attention, strengthening of technical and operational capacities, as well as improvement in the quality of regulation, control, and supervision services of providers nationwide, factors that condition public trust in times of crisis.

ERSAPS determined that supervision and control of service provision be carried out in a decentralized manner and delegated to citizen audit instances, created and supported municipally. To this effect, there are currently two entities: i) Municipal Water and Sanitation Commission (COMAS), composed of neighbors and Municipal Corporation councilors, with governing functions. It has focused on socializing the legal framework and disseminating methodology and regulation for tariff calculations; and, ii) Local Supervision and Control Unit (USCL), composed of community neighbors, with regulatory functions, overseeing legal compliance, in both urban and rural areas.

As Coordinating Director of ERSAPS and trusted by our Most Excellent Madam President, Iris Xiomara Castro Sarmiento, we will implement in a supportive and inclusive manner serving the majority, the Bicentennial Government Plan for the refoundation of Honduras, and thus guarantee the state's purpose towards protecting the sovereign people's rights to access drinking water and sanitation.

Lawyer José Luis Melara Murillo
Coordinating Director - ERSAPS