Conferring rights to South Africa’s rivers: Improved protection and enforcement?

How can the law better protect rivers in the face of pollution, overuse, and climate change? This book explores whether recognising rivers as legal persons with rights could strengthen environmental governance and enforcement in South Africa. Drawing on comparative analysis of river rights regimes in countries such as Ecuador, Colombia, New Zealand, India, Bangladesh and Canada, it examines their legal foundations, governance structures, and practical outcomes. The study evaluates the strengths and limitations of these approaches and develops a realistic, provincially grounded legal model for improving the protection and governance of South Africa’s rivers.