Abstract

SUELT COCK, VANESSA. Tensions between River Rights and the Fundamental Right to Water and Sanitation: The Case of Some Rural Villages in Mesetas. Rev. Derecho Estado [online]. 2024, n.58, pp.307-336.  Epub Feb 17, 2024. ISSN 0122-9893.  https://doi.org/10.18601/01229893.n58.11.

The rights to nature and the satisfaction of the fundamental right to water and sanitation, as well as the protection of water sources are closely linked in national political spaces and the daily practices of those who inhabit the territory. This relationship can be understood from ecocentrism in which a human-nature relationship is configured based on the interdependence of humans with the other elements of nature, as well as the mutual interactions that lead to their reciprocal shaping. This article presents the tensions of this interdependence created by the rules indicated by the constitutional jurisprudence that grants the fundamental character to the right to water and sanitation, and the right to rivers. This jurisprudential development, which is not homogeneous, differs from the regulations on the subject, which have an anthropocentric approach where monetary gains and the use of resources take precedence. We present the case of some villages in Mesetas, Meta, in light of those tensions between jurisprudential and normative developments. The aim is to give a critical account of the limitations of the legal structures in the ecological restoration of rivers and the fundamental right to water, as well as the lack of recognition of mutual relations and dependencies. We propose that there is a need for changes in the legal structures and institutions, to ensure the stability and integrity of river ecosystems in the country.

Keywords : Fundamental right to water; river rights; public policy on water and its management; political ecology and rights of nature.

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