More than 200 young people will gather in December in the eastern Argentine city of Chascomús to celebrate the first National Water and Youth Conference. “The idea is to unite criteria on basic concepts like access to water as a human right, and based on that common agenda, to have an impact on public policies,” Leonardo Davies, coordinator of Youth Agenda, one of the 34 groups organizing the conference, told Tierramérica.

Eight million Argentines do not have access to potable water networks, and 21 million lack sanitation services.

At the Dec. 7-8 gathering in Chascomús, 200 kilometers south of Buenos Aires, participants hope to draw up action plans to share at the international meet to take place in 2008 in Zaragoza, Spain, said Davies.

The Water and Youth movement, which encompasses some 300 groups in 70 countries, was launched this year in Buenos Aires.