In November 2016 C.E., Slovenia quietly made history. Its parliament voted to amend the national constitution, declaring that every citizen has a fundamental right to drinking water — and that water is not, under any circumstances, a market commodity to be bought and sold. It was the first time any European Union member state had gone that far.
Key findings
- Constitutional water rights: Slovenia’s amendment explicitly states that water resources are a public good managed by the state, and that they cannot be treated as a commodity on the open market.
- EU precedent: While 15 other countries globally had included water rights in their constitutions before this vote, no E.U. member state had done so — making Slovenia’s move a regional first with potential ripple effects across Europe.
- Corporate protection: Prime Minister Miro Cerar framed the amendment as a direct defense against foreign interests and multinational corporations, calling water “the 21st century’s liquid gold” that must be protected at the highest legal level.
Why Slovenia moved first
Slovenia is a small, mountainous country of just over two million people, but its relationship with water runs deep. The nation is home to some of the cleanest freshwater sources in Europe, fed by the Alps and an extensive system of rivers and aquifers.
That abundance, paradoxically, is part of what motivated action. Slovenian officials recognized that high-quality water doesn’t just attract thirsty citizens — it attracts investors, corporations, and foreign interests looking to control the source. PM Cerar was direct about this: “Slovenian water has very good quality and, because of its value, in the future it will certainly be the target of foreign countries and international corporations’ appetites.”
The constitutional amendment was passed with broad political support, reflecting a rare moment of cross-party consensus around a public good. The language is unusually firm. Water resources are described as “primary and durably used to supply citizens with potable water and households with water” — and the amendment explicitly bars their classification as a market commodity.
The global fight over water
Slovenia’s vote didn’t happen in a vacuum. Across the world in 2016 C.E., the question of who owns water was becoming increasingly urgent. Multinational companies like Nestlé, PepsiCo, and Coca-Cola had built multi-billion-dollar businesses extracting water from public sources, packaging it in single-use plastic, and selling it back at thousands of times the cost of tap water.
Meanwhile, aging public water infrastructure in wealthy countries was being neglected or sold off to private operators. Critics warned that privatization consistently leads to higher prices, reduced access for low-income households, and diminished accountability.
The United Nations had recognized access to safe drinking water as a human right in 2010 C.E. — but a U.N. resolution is not enforceable law. Slovenia’s constitutional amendment was something harder to undo.
A green country goes further
The water amendment fit a broader pattern. Slovenia had recently been named the world’s first green destination country, and its capital, Ljubljana, had earned the title of European Green Capital for 2016 C.E. These weren’t just tourism accolades — they reflected genuine policy commitments on urban planning, public transit, and environmental protection.
Enshrining water rights in the constitution extended that logic to its natural conclusion: if you are serious about environmental protection, you protect what sustains all life before the market can commodify it.
Lasting impact
Slovenia’s move gave other E.U. nations a legal template and a political argument. Advocates in countries like Hungary, Germany, and Italy who had long pushed for constitutional water protections could point to a working example inside the bloc. The amendment also arrived as the European Citizens’ Initiative “Right2Water” — which had gathered 1.9 million signatures calling on the European Commission to recognize water as a human right — was still working its way through E.U. institutions.
More broadly, Slovenia demonstrated something important: that a small country can lead on a global issue, not through economic power, but through political will and clarity of values.
Blindspots and limits
Constitutional rights do not automatically translate into universal access. Countries including South Africa and Bolivia have enshrined the right to water in law, and still face serious challenges with delivery, infrastructure, and affordability — particularly in rural and lower-income communities. Slovenia’s strong starting point of clean, abundant water makes implementation far more tractable than it would be in water-stressed nations, and the long-term pressure from climate change on Alpine water sources remains a real and unresolved concern.
Read more
For more on this story, see: Treehugger — Slovenia makes drinkable water a constitutional right for all
For more from Good News for Humankind, see:
- Ghana protects its waters: the Cape Three Points marine reserve
- Indigenous land rights: 160 million hectares recognized ahead of COP30
- The Good News for Humankind archive on environmental policy
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