The human right to water in El Salvador: legal considerations on its recognition, the situation of the water resource and the effectiveness of its protection

Abstract

This article offers an approach and discussion on the effective protection of the human right to water in El Salvador. In this sense, the purpose of the article is twofold: to discuss the situation of the human right to water from a legal point of view and to analyze whether people have effective ways to claim that right.

To achieve these purposes and to reflect on the effectiveness of the protection of the right to water in the country, a technical legal approach has been used. First, considering the legal-subjective faculties that make up the right to water, according to national and international norms, and reviewing the Salvadoran situation of water resources. This was done in order to establish conceptual bases and clarify, to a certain extent, the situation in the country. Second, the various constitutional, international, legal and jurisprudential norms that apply to the right to water were identified. Third, the administrative and judicial practice, in application of the identified norms were reviewed, with the purpose of protecting the right to water, in order to finally determine if an effective protection of the right to water can be predicated in the country.

As a result, we have identified eight administrative as well as four judicial avenues through which the conservation and protection of the right to water can be requested in one or more of its faculties. However, we have identified and discussed challenges to their effectiveness, considering their simplicity of access, speed of the competent entities to resolve and, importantly, their suitability for the defense of the human right to water.

ECA Estudios Centroamericanos, Vol. 78, No. 775, 2023: 51-84.