Right to Water

DECISION T- 616/10 Right to Water

In this ruling the Court has carried out a review of all the case law in relation to the right to water. The Court ruled that the fundamental right to water is a prerequisite to enjoy other rights such as the right to education, since to guarantee the proper functioning of a school, it is required to have access to public services like watersupply and sewerage; the right to a clean environment and the right to the protection of ethnicity and culture, due to the fact that some Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities consider water as an element which bears a special cosmogonic significance. Regarding water as a fundamental right, the Constitutional Court has ruled in favor of actions for protection related to different aspects of the right to water such as a minimum guarantee that there will be (i) availability, (ii) quality, (iii) access and (iv) no discrimination in the water supply, in line with the duty of employing the maximum of means available to make the right to a water a reality for all the inhabitants of Colombia.

*Other decisions: T-103 / 2016, T-199 / 2014 , T-475/ 2017, T- 188 / 2018 , T-223 de 2018 y T-297 / 2018