Uruguayan civil society groups will celebrate Mar. 22, World Water Day, with workshops, exhibits and cultural activities to raise awareness about the importance of this resource and to promote a constitutional reform that would prohibit the privatization of water and sanitation services. Faced with the government's attempts to privatize water services, the groups involved in the National Commission in Defense of Water and Life gathered signatures last year and achieved the necessary number to propose a reform, which will be put to a referendum along with the national elections in October.

If voters approve the initiative, water will be declared a basic and inalienable right, and social factors will take priority over economics in provision of water services, Selva Ortiz, of the local organization Redes/Friends of the Earth, told Tierramérica.

The group says that the privatization experience in the department of Maldonado “demonstrates that private administration drives of costs for the users, reduces quality of services and does not preserve the environment.”