Reflections on Right to Water in Ecuador

Since the Constitution of 2008 the water acquire a legal status as Human Right, and deserve a constitutional protection as a part of the Nature (1).  Ecuadorian constitution was the first in the world to introduce a Bill of Rights for the nature. In this line, there is several duty that State has to follow to protect and fulfill every citizen needs, as for instance, to granted the communitarian governance of hydric sources, to prevent and response to any pollution on water reserves, to granted that every citizen has access to clean water and sanitation services.

Accordingly to United Nations SG6 until 2030, every society has to granted to their citizens the universal access to clean water and related services. Also is a sensitive goal to granted the protection of every ecosystem related to forest, rivers, and any other source of fresh water. Finally, the UN commitment stress out the importance that International cooperation transfer enough resources and technology to support Global South societies in order to fullfill this goal. (2)

In spite of theses constitutional provisions and the UN development goals there still many challenges to secure the universal access to water in Ecuador. In this sense, a Ombudsperson report suggest to develop public policies toward to reorganize the Institutional framework wich has the responsibility to protect and provide clean water to every citizen, to mitigate the poluttion of rivers by urban consumption, and most important to protect the water sources from extractivism industries. (3) 

One of the main concerns at the national public debate is about the mining activities on Amazonian and indigenous ancestral lands.  So that, there is a tension in how extractions industries operates vis-a-vis indigenous communities rights and needs.   


  1. http://pdba.georgetown.edu/Constitutions/Ecuador/english08.html
  2. http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/es/water-and-sanitation/
  3. http://repositorio.dpe.gob.ec/handle/39000/119