Water rights and freedom to choose the form of water use

Who has a right to water? How to improve the water rights and equal sharing of the resource? Many social problems are connected to unequal acces to water resources, more infro can be found e.g. from WHO and UNDP's Mainstreaming Gender in Water Management guide - how to empower the users in the weakest position? Especially in agriculture in Central Asia farmers have little freedom to choose their crops. Cultivating water hungry cotton decreases soil quality. Revenues gained from the production could be much higher if the products were further prosessed instead of dumping them to world markets. Besides, the industry represses women and children working in the fields. What is needed - alternative crops, new forms of production; pressure from the markets, democratization processes, something else? Join the discussion!