Clean Water

ELAW is working with partners in Peru to develop training materials in user-friendly formats that explain complex environmental health and legal topics. (PHOTO: Derecho Ambiente y Recursos Naturales)

Clean, fresh water might be the most valuable resource on earth.  Indeed, all living things need water.  Yet, we do not have an infinite supply of water.

The world's six billion people are already using more than half of the planet's accessible freshwater, while industrial emissions, destruction of wetlands and forests, and water privatization schemes threaten freshwater all over the world.  Ensuring that people and ecosystems have equitable, sustainable supplies of clean water may be the greatest environmental challenge we face.

ELAW is working with partners on every continent to ensure that communities have access to clean, potable water.  Together we are cleaning up water supplies, protecting watersheds, and holding polluters accountable.

In some countries, laws and regulations governing water supplies are not strong enough.  In others, the laws look good on paper, but they are not enforced. Polluters abuse waterways and government agencies ignore their responsibility to keep freshwater safe and available.

One key to securing clean water is empowering local advocates to strengthen laws and policies protecting water resources, challenge unlawful polluting practices, and help citizens assert their right to clean water.  ELAW is pleased with its work strengthening and enforcing laws that protect clean water around the world.

A few recent examples of our work:

UKRAINE

People living in the small town of Vilshyna, in eastern Ukraine, were suffering because a coal enrichment factory was contaminating local well water.  Attorneys at Environment-People-Law called on ELAW to help identify the source of the contaminants.  ELAW Staff Scientist Mark Chernaik helped establish that mercury and cadmium from factory emissions were the source of the problem.  Our Ukrainian partners reported this information to the European Court of Human Rights.  The Court ruled in favor of the residents and quoted Mark's report analyzing the health hazard.

MEXICO

Polluting industries are contaminating water supplies in Guadalajara.  ELAW is working closely with Mexican attorney Pedro Leon to convince the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to protect citizens from polluted surface water.  The Government claims that its proposal to build the new El Ahogado wastewater treatment plant will solve water pollution in metropolitan Guadalajara.  ELAW provided Pedro with documents showing that the proposed El Ahogado plant will have the capacity to treat only 20% of the city's wastewater and that the government will need to separate the combined storm water and sewage system so that it does not overwhelm the plant during periods of heavy rain.  The petition is pending.

INDIA

Thousands of villagers in Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu, are at risk from contaminated water supplies.  A Sterlite Industries copper smelter generates large quantities of solid wastes, including slag and gypsum, which it disposes in massive landfills surrounding its facility in Tuticorin.  The High Court of Madras ordered Sterlite to close the smelter because it is violating environmental laws, but Sterlite has appealed to the Supreme Court.  ELAW is helping partners in India present evidence in the Supreme Court showing that wastes from Sterlite are responsible for rendering groundwater near the facility unfit for human consumption.  The case is pending.

PHILIPPINES

Taal Lake in Batangas, south of Manila, is a freshwater "caldera" formed by volcanic eruptions.  It covers more than 90 square miles and provides critical habitat for fish and wildlife.  The lake is now threatened by overfishing, shoreline development, and pollution.  ELAW is helping local partners strengthen and implement provisions of the "Taal Volcano Protected Landscape Management Plan," a democratic, decentralized, and community-based approach to protecting the natural quality of Taal Lake.

EL SALVADOR

The Rio Sucio once provided clean drinking water in the San Andres Valley.  Now, more than 100 industries and municipal treatment plants discharging partially treated wastewater have rendered the Rio Sucio unfit for human use.  ELAW is working with local partners to interpret water quality reports and help identify the worst polluters and require them to comply with El Salvador's water quality laws.

PANAMA

ELAW is working closely with El Centro de Incidencia Ambiental (CIAM), Panama's leading grassroots environmental law organization, to challenge mining projects that threaten critical water supplies.  For example, the proposed Cobre Panama copper mine threatens surface and groundwater.  ELAW is helping CIAM review the project's environmental management plan.

PERU

Asbestos in aging pipelines and pollution in the Rimac River leave low-income areas of Lima without enough potable water.  ELAW is working with partners to analyze water quality studies and pinpoint pollution sources, which include upstream mining operations and municipal waste.  ELAW is also working to ensure that oil development planned for the Ucayali River Basin does not sacrifice pristine waterways in the Peruvian Amazon.

MESOAMERICA

ELAW is building the capacity of local organizations in Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and Guatemala to protect the Mesoamerican Reef, and the watersheds that flow to the Reef.  By providing targeted legal and scientific information and organizational development support, ELAW is helping these organizations serve citizens throughout the region who seek to protect natural treasures.

LIBERIA & GHANA

Grassroots attorneys from Liberia and Ghana participated in ELAW Fellowships this past year to share strategies and gain expertise to promote sustainable mining, forestry, and climate policies.  They are collaborating with ELAW to address contamination from abandoned mines, build the capacity of government agencies to enforce forestry laws and regulations, and identify sustainable practices for the extraction of oil and gas.  Mining and oil/gas projects threaten the availability and quality of surface and groundwater.  ELAW Fellows collaborated on clean water efforts and formed professional alliances and friendships that will last a lifetime.