Río Acelhuate, in centuries before the Spanish conquest, the inhabitants of "Kozkatl" (in Nahuatl) that was Spanishized as Cuzcatlán and later baptized as San Salvador, called the river Acelhuate "Axolhuatl" from "axol" river flower and "huatl" "Place, that in translating it would be" river that has nymphs. "

The Acelhuate river basin includes the following Salvadoran municipalities: Antiguo Cuscatlán, San Salvador, Nueva San Salvador, Mejicanos, Soyapango, Ciudad Delgado, Cuscatancingo, Ayutuxtepeque, Tonacatepeque, Guazapa, San Martín, Apopa, Nejapa, Aguilares, San Marcos, Suchitoto, San José Guayabal and Oratory of Concepción.

The basin, whose approximate extension is 1,072.98 km², which constitutes 5.1% of the country's area, has 1,235,451 inhabitants, corresponding to 24.1% of the country's total.

The Acelhuate River, is part of the hydrographic system of the Lempa River, and on its way to the mouth, it receives the contribution of several tributaries, among them, the Montserrat stream, Arenal de Mejicanos, Tutunichapa -Tomayate stream, and the Ilohuapa rivers, Las Cañas, Guazapa and Tasajera. The area of ​​the river is 733.0 km², that is, 3.5% of the total area of ​​the country, it is also one of the largest in El Salvador.

Although most Salvadorans know that the river and its tributaries have a high degree of pollution, some sectors of the population still use the river water to carry out daily activities due to the lack of drinking water sources.

The river began to be polluted in the 1950s, when communities began to settle nearby and then contaminate it. Almost the entire Salvadoran population knows that this river has a high degree of pollution, several times it has been proposed to clean it, but it has only been proposed. The river is polluted by almost 100 industries, in addition to the colonies and communities that are in its surroundings that dump waste and untreated wastewater into the river, the river has 6 tributaries.

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