Short answer. Yes. When an animal path is compulsorily established just so animals can reach water, the Civil Code caps its width at 10 meters — far narrower than the 75-meter animal path or 37.5-meter animal trail that usage and custom otherwise allow, because a compulsory easement burdens the landowner more directly.
What the law says
the animal path shall not exceed in any case the width of 75 meters, and the animal trail that of 37 meters and 50 centimeters
Civil Code, Article 657 — Animal Paths and Watering Places. Read the full provision →
What the law says
In this case the width shall not exceed 10 meters.
Civil Code, Article 657 — Animal Paths and Watering Places. Read the full provision →
What the law says
Compulsory easements for drawing water or for watering animals can be imposed only for reasons of public use in favor of a town or village, after payment of the proper indemnity.
Civil Code, Article 640 — Drawing Water and Watering Animals. Read the full provision →
Two different kinds of width limits
Article 657 of the Civil Code covers two different situations. The first is the ordinary animal path or animal trail that already exists under a local ordinance, regulation, or long-standing usage and custom — for that kind of easement, the law caps the animal path at 75 meters and the animal trail at 37 meters and 50 centimeters, without prejudice to rights already legally acquired. The second situation is different: it applies when there is no such existing path and one has to be compulsorily established, whether for the general passage of livestock or specifically so animals can reach a watering place, resting place, or animal fold.
The narrower 10-meter cap for compulsory easements
When the easement has to be compulsorily established — meaning the landowner did not agree to it and it is being imposed under the law rather than by custom — the statute sets a single, much narrower limit: the width shall not exceed 10 meters. This applies whether the compulsory easement is for the general passage of livestock or, as in your situation, specifically for animals to reach a watering place. The narrower cap balances the practical need to move or water the animals against the heavier burden a compulsory right of way places on the owner of the land it crosses.
Why watering easements carry extra conditions
A compulsory easement for watering animals is not simply asked for and granted. Article 640 limits it to cases where it serves a genuine public use in favor of a town or village, and only after the landowner has been paid the proper indemnity. Article 641 adds that this kind of easement automatically carries with it the obligation to allow passage — not just of the animals, but of the persons accompanying them — to reach the watering place, and the indemnity paid for the easement must include payment for that additional passage.
In the absence of ordinances or custom
Outside the compulsory setting, animal paths, trails, watering places, resting places, and animal folds are governed first by whatever ordinances and regulations apply in the locality, and only in their absence by the usages and customs of the place. A width that already existed under a right legally acquired before these rules is preserved and is not automatically cut down to the statutory maximums. But once a landowner has to seek a compulsory easement — because no such right or custom exists — the fixed 10-meter cap for the watering-place scenario replaces those looser, custom-based limits.