Although these policy commitments are not legally binding on states, at least in the long term, they should have a beneficial impact on the lives of ordinary citizens and those without access to water because:

• The preparation of global conferences has prompted unprecedented co-operation between inter-governmental, governmental and non-governmental organisations worldwide.
• These declarations and policy commitments have focused greater international and national attention on water issues and have stimulated debate and research on specific aspects
• This in turn has led to an increasing awareness of such issues as the crisis of water resources in cities as a result of rapid urbanisation, gender inequalities and inequitable cost burdens born by the poor
• Research and the collection of statistical data on these issues have increased political pressure and have helped shape water policies and programmes
• Where the political commitments have set targets, whether at the national or international level, these can be used to measure progress and for insisting that the necessary steps to meet these objectives are taken, both by individual governments and by the international community as a whole
• Political commitments undertaken by individual states provide a basis for lobbying in that country and for mobilising community action.
• They provide a basis for holding governments politically accountable for their action and inaction.
• Additional activities around the conferences have provided an important platform for the concerns of deprived communities to be voiced. This has had a considerable influence on changing perceptions and shaping the analysis of issues from a people-centred, human rights-based perspective.
• The adoption of a number of international policy commitments and declarations on water issues represents global consensus on agreed priorities.
• The right to water is being increasingly relied upon as a policy imperative by water development organisations and NGOs throughout the world.

The evolution of policy evidenced in these conferences has played a key role in contributing to the recognition of the right to water as an independent human right which is capable of legal enforcement. Despite this progress at the level of policy commitment, more than a billion people worldwide remain without adequate access to clean water. Urgent attention needs to be given to ensuring the practical implementation of the commitments made at these conferences.