Many of the cocoa growers are members of cooperatives certified by voluntary standard systems including Fair Trade and Rainforest Alliance.
In one case, a primary school serving more than 150 children had no toilets, running water, or soap. Pupils defecated in the surrounding bushes, which they also used as their playground.
This is despite the fact the school was recently refurbished by the local producer organisation with support from Barry Callebaut, Ben and Jerry’s and Fairtrade Premium funds. Barry Callebaut did not respond to a request for comment.
Justice
Fairtrade certification requires that all workers have access to clean drinking water, as well as access to toilets and hand washing facilities,
A spokesperson said: “Fairtrade recognises that there is a lot of work to do in order to help remediate water poverty and we are committed to our role and are open to work with organisations and partners to help make a difference.”
The premium paid to farmers with Fairtrade certification can be invested in projects such as education, healthcare, infrastructure and farm productivity. But farmer organisations decide what top spend the money on.
Since Water Witness had made Fairtrade aware of its findings last summer, it has been working to raise awareness of the importance of the right to clean water and sanitation with farmers, it said.
It is also searching for more donors to contribute funding to projects that focus on water justice, especially communities facing physical and economic water scarcity, it said.
Children
Cocoa growing communities were also found to be highly vulnerable to climate change. All those visited have already been seriously impacted by erratic and increasingly intense rainfall patterns caused by climate change.
Cocoa yields have plummeted, typically by around 40 per cent, and in some cases by as much as 90 per cent, contributing to a global shortage of cocoa.
Water Witness accused the chocolate industry of leaving smallholder cocoa farmers to bear the brunt of climate change alone.
None of the farming communities visited reported receiving any meaningful support from companies, buyers or standard systems to build resilience, despite the availability of proven approaches like seasonal forecasting, climate-smart seeds, crop insurance, and conservation agriculture, it said.
Without any financial safety net, many farmers have taken children out of school or cleared ancient forest to grow food for themselves, or to sell.
Chain
Traders, chocolate brands, retailers, standard systems and trading partners need to urgently improve their performance on rights to water and sanitation, and making their growers resilient to climate shocks, Water Witness said.
Despite public commitments to respect human rights and address climate change, they currently fall well short in these areas, it added.
Dr Nick Hepworth, the chief executive of Water Witness, said: “The water footprint of chocolate is grotesquely unfair. It is a sector where brands are posting record profits while their primary producers lack the most basic of human rights.”
This water poverty locks communities, particularly women and girls, into a cycle of ill-health and lost opportunity, he added.
A spokesperson for the World Cocoa Foundation, which represents 90 companies across the global cocoa and chocolate supply chain, said that water poverty, inadequate sanitation infrastructure and climate vulnerability are systemic challenges affecting rural communities across multiple agricultural value chains in Côte d’Ivoire.
Demand
The cocoa sector recognises that it has a responsibility to contribute to long-term solutions, and the issue was “an area of active engagement within the sector”, he added, though he did not provide any examples.
He went on: “We recognise the seriousness of the challenges highlighted and agree that building water security and climate resilience for cocoa-growing communities must remain a shared priority. These issues are complex and require sustained collaboration across sectors rather than isolated interventions.”
He claimed many companies are boosting farmer resilience to climate change by investing in agroforestry, disease-resistant planting material, farmer training and soil and water management practices. He also suggested deforestation was being tackled through traceability and monitoring programmes, while steps to prevent and deal with child labour had also been put into place.
Tony’s Chocolonely, which sources cocoa for its own products as well as for brands including Ben and Jerry’s and Waitrose, said that it had increased water and sanitation access in cocoa growing communities in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana by ten per cent by installing water pumps and connecting schools to the water grid. It was also improving climate resilience of its farmers through agroforestry and long-term farm development.
Water Witness has launched a campaign calling on people to demand a UK Business, Human Rights and Environment Act.
Proof
This would bring UK legislation in line with international human rights standards by requiring UK companies and public institutions to identify and prevent human rights and environmental harms across their domestic operations and their international supply chains.
In the case of cocoa farmers in West Africa, companies would be required to carry out due diligence to demonstrate that their activities are not contributing to human rights and environmental issues, Hepworth explained.
If they fail in due diligence the companies would face either administrative or criminal liability, he said.
“It’s a hugely powerful mechanism. The burden of proof lies on the company to prove that its activities are not driving problems. It would put the entire supply chain under the spotlight,” he said.
This Author
Catherine Early is the chief reporter for The Ecologist and a freelance environmental journalist. Find her on Bluesky @catearly.bsky.social.