Case study report on rights of rivers in practice in Bangladesh and Colombia

The report finds that granting legal personhood to rivers is a symbolic starting point that often fails to produce material ecological recovery due to fragmented governance, anthropocentric interpretations, and the marginalization of local knowledge. In Bangladesh, a state-led guardianship model lacks enforcement power and community representation, while Colombia's shared guardianship model incorporates biocultural knowledge but remains constrained by financial limitations and sectoral fragmentation.

• Legal recognition of rivers as persons is a normative shift that does not automatically ensure environmental improvement. In both Bangladesh and Colombia, a gap exists between juridical recognition and enforceable actions, with the Atrato River seeing an estimated increase of 50,000 hectares affected by mining after its legal recognition.
• The effectiveness of river rights depends heavily on the guardianship model. Bangladesh uses a single-guardian model (the National River Conservation Commission) which lacks community representation and statutory enforcement power. Colombia employs a shared guardianship model via the Commission of Guardians and the Cuerpo Colegiado de Guardianes del Atrato, which provides higher political legitimacy through collective community representation.
• The integration of local and biocultural knowledge is essential for transformative governance. In Colombia, the use of biocultural calendars aligned with community rhythms has helped bridge epistemic gaps, whereas in Bangladesh, river governance remains top-down and technocratic, marginalizing riparian ecological knowledge.
• Institutional fragmentation and misaligned mandates hinder the implementation of river rights. In Bangladesh, the National River Conservation Commission's directives often conflict with existing statutes like the Bangladesh Environmental Conservation Act 1995. In Colombia, implementation is split across more than 30 state institutions following sectoral agendas rather than an integrated strategy.
• Colonial legacies continue to shape contemporary river governance. Bangladesh's system maintains centralized, managerial approaches inherited from British colonial water management. In Colombia, while colonial patterns of centralized authority persist, the legal recognition of the Atrato River has created spaces for communities to contest these hierarchies.
• Current implementations of river rights remain largely anthropocentric, focusing on human benefits such as pollution reduction rather than the inherent rights of the river as an autonomous entity. The report suggests a need for proactive regeneration and monitoring of whole watersheds beyond human impacts.

APA

Rodríguez-Blásquez, Y., Kim, D., Farnan, R., Dyke, A., Mandal, S., & Coleoni, C. (2026). Case study report on rights of rivers in practice in Bangladesh and Colombia. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/rights-of-rivers-bangladesh-colombia-sei2026-022.pdf

Chicago

Rodríguez-Blásquez, Yesica, Dayoon Kim, Robert Farnan, Alison Dyke, Sushmita Mandal, and Cláudia Coleoni. Case study report on rights of rivers in practice in Bangladesh and Colombia. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2026. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/rights-of-rivers-bangladesh-colombia-sei2026-022.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Rodríguez-Blásquez |first1=Yesica |last2=Kim |first2=Dayoon |last3=Farnan |first3=Robert |last4=Dyke |first4=Alison |last5=Mandal |first5=Sushmita |last6=Coleoni |first6=Cláudia |title=Case study report on rights of rivers in practice in Bangladesh and Colombia |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=June 2026 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/rights-of-rivers-bangladesh-colombia-sei2026-022.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rodrguezblsquez2026case, author = {Rodríguez-Blásquez, Yesica and Kim, Dayoon and Farnan, Robert and Dyke, Alison and Mandal, Sushmita and Coleoni, Cláudia}, title = {{Case study report on rights of rivers in practice in Bangladesh and Colombia}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2026}, month = jun, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/rights-of-rivers-bangladesh-colombia-sei2026-022.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }