It was 2009, she was just a year into her role as UN special rapporteur on the right to safe drinking water and sanitation, and delegates did not like her suggestion that people should pay for water. In November 2014, she was appointed executive director of Sanitation and Water for All, a global partnership working to strengthen political leadership to increase access to water and sanitation. As special rapporteur, de Albuquerque pushed for the inclusion of human rights language in the SDGs, and for a specific goal for water and sanitation.

‘Water is a human right … but it can have a price’