Radio Mundo Real

Nearly 30 people representing family farmers of Uruguay, social organizations, the national government and rural women participated on Tuesday in an activity-workshop called “Water basins and territorial management” held in Florida department, Uruguay.

The event took place at the Society of Milk Farmers of Florida and it was co-organized by: The Network for Rural Women Groups of Uruguay, Uruguay Sustentable, REDES – Friends of the Earth Uruguay, The National Commission in Defense of Water and Life (CNDAV) and the Department of Sustainable Development of the Municipality of Florida.

The event was held also to mark “Blue October”, a month of celebrations of social movements and organizations around the world that reclaim the human right to water. The activists consider the water referendum held in Uruguay in October of 2004 as a landmark date in the world’s history.

In this popular consultation the Uruguayan people voted to nationalize water and to amend the constitution and include water and sanitation as fundamental human rights.

In a press release issued ahead of the event, REDES-Friends of the Earth Uruguay said: “We need to identify the concerns, alternatives and opportunities about the different uses of soil in the country, the existing territorial conflicts (with a strong presence of agribusiness) and the implications on our basins”.

“The existence of water in the territories and therefore its availability for human use depends basically on the sustainable management of ecosystems. Defining how that management would be is a responsibility of all the Uruguayan citizens”.

Real World Radio covered this event-workshop and interviewed Yolanda Martinez, representative of Network of Rural Women Groups.
She expressed her concern over water shortage in some parts of the country because “we do not have enough information about water pollution by agrotoxics, for example.

The pressure of agribusiness, especially soy and forestation on land and water sources was a recurrent issue during the event.

“Forestation is absorbing all the water drying wells and water streams in many parts of the country”, she said. “An adult tree uses up nearly 600 liters of water a day”, quoting information provided by PhD on Agronomic Sciences Marcel Achkar, professor of the School of Sciences of the University of the Republic and member of REDES-Friends of the Earth Uruguay.

She considered that water is as important for people in the rural areas as it is for the people living in the cities. However, she said that sometimes the people in the cities “do not seem to share these concerns”.

Martínez also expressed concerned over the potential pollution of factory farming facilities if the animal waste is thrown in the water streams.

Finally she said there are mechanisms and ways for the Group of Rural Women to submit their concerns to the authorities but it is “very hard to have them listen to us. We are always trying to defend our rights, so that they see us as concerned rural workers”.

Photo: Radio Mundo Real