The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights officials accountable for allowing such fraud so as to protect the public interest. Influential property developers The death toll in landslides due to heavy monsoon rains in Chittagong, Cox's Bazar, Sylhet and or real estate agencies who Bandarban rose to 110 on 28 June 2012. The number had reportedly occupied public of casualties is feared to rise as scores went missing following multiple landslides and house collapse land in Dhaka included Metro in the hill districts. In Chittagong at Motka Ghona two sisters aged seven and eight died in a Makers Ltd., Amin Mohammad area, landslide on 26 June evening. Six people, including Foundation, Shomotot Housing, two two-year-old girls, were killed at Yasin Colony under Khulshi Police Station. “I somehow managed Eastern Housing, East West to come out of my house. But my wife and two-yeardaughter were buried under mud as huge chunks Developers (Bashundhara), Sharif old of earth fell on my house," said Mizanur Rahman Housing, Falcon Real Estate, and of Yasin Colony in Chittagong. His daughter died instantly. His wife survived but was fighting for her Jamuna Builders. They had also, life at Chittagong Medical College Hospital. reportedly, encroached upon and Those people living in landslide-prone areas were reportedly warned by the concerned authority about filled wetlands, rivers, canals, flood the probable dangers and asked to relocate. But the defied the instruction as they have no flow zones, and water retention inhabitants shelter to live. ponds. The Standing Committee Source: The Daily Star, 28 June and the Daily Prothom Alo, 29 June 2012. estimated that the price of land so appropriated would be worth about Taka 700,000 million (Source: New Age, 1 September, 2006). Land developers have not only grabbed public land, they have also forced small private landowners to sell their land, usually by buying the hinterland and then pressurizing them to sell the front part to provide an access road. They have purchased land in dispute, by exploiting differences between the disputing parties. Sometimes they made advance payments for purchase of the land to the owner and, reportedly, bribed the land registry officers to register the sale and mutate the property in their names in advance so as to evade paying the total sales amount. The powerless, particularly women, ethnic minorities and the poor who become prey to land grabbers face insecurity and may even be unable to use their own lands, given the constant threat of appropriation by powerful property developers and real estate agents. BELA, an environmental lawyers’ organization, served a legal notice upon three major real estate companies, Eastern Housing, East-West Housing, (Bashundhara), and Amin Mohammad Land Development Ltd., for violating 46 the Private Land Development and Housing Rules, 2004. It simultaneously served a notice upon the Secretaries of the Ministries of Land and Public Works, Chairperson of RAJUK, and other concerned departments. A joint press release was issued by BELA, ASK, BLAST and Nijera Kori to draw the attention of the public. After this, RAJUK issued legal notices and filed cases against the land developers. As it was beyond RAJUK’s capacity to take legal action, the Secretary of RAJUK wrote to the Secretary of Home Affairs on 17 September 2006 to take legal action against the named companies. 3.2 Right to Water: The right to water is not explicitly mentioned in the constitution of Bangladesh, so it requires liberal interpretation of Article 15 (a) of the Bangladesh constitution to find ‘water as one of the basic necessaries’. Even though the word ‘including’ used in this article could be interpreted that the ‘right to water’ clearly falls within the category of the basic necessities of life, it is not judicially enforceable according to the Article 8(2) of the constitution. The UN independent expert, Ms. Catarina de Albuquerque on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation, visited Bangladesh in December 2009 and submitted her report in the fifteenth session of the UN Human Rights Council in July 2010. In her report she highlighted several gaps in policies and practices in regard to ensuring the right to water. Some of those are: the Policy for Safe Water Supply and Sanitation (1998), the Water Management Plan (2004) and the Policy for Arsenic Mitigation (2004), as well as the Sector Development Framework (2004), the Pro-Poor Strategy for Water and Sanitation Sector (2005). While the policies in place in Bangladesh emphasize the participation of water and sanitation users in policy design, implementation and monitoring, reportedly, consultation with these groups is not always carried out. She found some gaps in the draft water act, as she has mentioned: 47