Abstract

Javier Taks describes the process leading to the 2004 Water Referendum and how the promises now included in Uruguayan Constitutional Law can be met. He argues that three years after the referendum, there are old and new actors talking in the name of water in an unresolved economic transition. On the one hand, the re-emergence of a model of national development based mainly on exporting Uruguay's natural resources for global markets, where easy access to surface and underground water represents a comparative advantage to attract corporate foreign productive investments needed to strengthen the national economy. On the other hand, the water social movement, represented by the Comisión Nacional en Defensa del Agua y la Vida, appears as opposing the general orientation of this development model at work. He suggests that the water movement, in association with other popular organizations, is striving to find a balanced position between participating with the government towards a national water plan and maintaining its autonomy.