The human right to water between community and state dynamics: The case of water cooperatives and the water district in Tagum City, Philippines

The realms of human rights and social justice have well-established the obligations to respect, protect, and fulfill the human right to water rested in the hands of the State. The usual discussion in most literatures is the tension created between water service privatization and state-led provision. But what if, the provision of potable water services and ultimately the fulfillment of water as a human right rested in the hands of private-cooperative run by a community and challenged by state-institutions such as domestic laws and political interests? What if the tension is between a community-run potable water service and a state-controlled water service? This is what the research intends to make sense of, and find out what conditions are suited in upholding the human right to water in this context.