Water and electricity disconnected
In November 2024, we reported that the water supply to Atochares, an informal settlement of migrant workers in southern Spain, had been severely reduced when two taps, funded by Ethical Consumer readers, were disconnected leaving only one tap to supply all residents. The electricity supply was also cut.
In April 2025, a team from Ethical Consumer visited the site and found that the taps were still not functioning.
“We saw workers having to collect water in plastic bottles and carry it several hundred metres uphill to their homes at the end of the working day,” said Shanta Bhavnani at Ethical Consumer. “And yet the settlement is surrounded by irrigated greenhouses”.
Supermarkets failing to investigate risks
Supermarkets have refused to respond to our request that they use their significant buying leverage in the region to ensure that an uninterrupted supply of water and electricity is restored to Atochares.
A source at the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) said that this is because supermarkets have not seen evidence that the people living in temporary settlements are working in their supply chains.
Yet UK supermarkets acknowledge that southern Spain is an important sourcing location for them, and workers living in the settlement claim to be employed at farms known to supply UK supermarkets.
Anti-Slavery International, Ethical Consumer, Landworkers’ Alliance and Spain-based union SAT Almeria, believe this evidence should prompt UK supermarkets to address these concerns.
If supermarkets require further evidence, they could establish where their supply chain workers live by asking suppliers or visiting worker settlements. But they have chosen not to do so.
Failure to carry out due diligence
By not investigating the risks, we believe that UK supermarkets are failing to uphold their commitments to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), under which companies have a responsibility to respect and not infringe on any human rights through their business operations and supply chains. As part of their UNGP commitment, UK supermarkets must uphold the minimum requirements laid out in the International Bill of Human Rights, including the right to:
- Adequate housing
- An adequate standard of living
- Health
- Life
The UNGPs detail the due diligence which companies should undertake to identify, prevent and mitigate human rights impacts and risks. This should cover actual and potential human rights impacts that the company may have caused or been associated with.
Companies are required to take action to end the harm and restore workers to the position they would have been in had the human rights infringement not taken place. But for this to happen, companies must actually assess the harm or potential harm.
Supermarkets can prioritise human rights impacts among their suppliers. But this does not mean that they can ignore any identified rights violations in these supply chains – under the UNGPs, supermarkets have a responsibility to address all their adverse human rights impacts.
These principles form the basis of corporate human rights laws, including the German Supply Chain Law, French Vigilance Law and EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive.
"We handed supermarkets a clear warning about potential human rights abuses in their supply chains, and they've taken no action,” said Jasmine Owens at Ethical Consumer. “Due diligence seems more like a buzzword than a practice for UK supermarkets.”
Supermarkets' response
British Retail Consortium responded the following on behalf of UK supermarkets: "The Spanish Ethical Trade Forum (ETF), through which UK retailers and their suppliers work with to improve working conditions in the Spanish agri-food sector, has confirmed that access to water has been restored in the area by the local municipality. Since February, the ETF has been attempting to engage with the local municipality to address the situation in Nijar and improve access to water and safe accommodation for people in agricultural communities."
In response, a local union told Ethical Consumer on 24 July 2025 that the local council has not take any steps to restore access to water.
