ABSTRACT
This chapter 1 describes the context and development of litigation that was launched in Mexico on behalf of four women inhabitants of a semi-rural and self-built neighbourhood which, for years, lacked water and sanitation. This effort led to the first ruling in the country whereby a judge established a violation of the human right to water, and the community was subsequently provided with access to the water network. This chapter analyses the limitations of what was achieved and the challenges residents had to face. It reflects on the difficulty of using strategic community litigation to resolve structural problems, such as the inadequate management and unequal distribution of water, which — in this and other cases — can be seen as discrimination against low-income neighbourhoods and populations that do not have full ownership of the lands they inhabit.
