Aside from higly developed countries, it was not until few years back that some efforts were devoted to meet the goals of economical growth and natural resources quality preservation. Because of that, their rules or laws do not address what today emerges as demands by the society: a rather high living standard and the enjoyment of a non-polluted environment. Such rules deem proper to apply economical fines to those who pollute the environment. Thus, a situation is set up so that contamination is virtually allowed as long as the national treasure gets its share. That is known as the “pollutant-payer” principle (PPP). This paper seeks the juridical validity of such principle, and finds it unfear, ethically questionable, and weak as a law-making thought. It is seen, at the most, as a complement of an action aimed at the restoration of the damaged system to its original status. Given such a lack of juridical support, the second part of this paper explores the limiting factors and characteristics of water resources (surface and groundwater) which may have incidence in looking for an updated set of rules or laws to address the above mentioned demands of the societies in the verge of the XX century.