Today 82% of Latin America has safe drinking water, yet 117 million people do not have access to water as a service and sanitation. Many of these people develop diseases related to the ingestion of arsenic or as a result of lack of sanitation. This fact is not minor in the midst of a pandemic that implies the need to constantly sanitize. In this way, the rights of all these people are being violated day by day.

Yesterday a claim was made to the Municipality of La Paz, Entre Rios, for access to drinking water that is continually denied. Comunidad Milpa -ex Comunidad Pacheco- accompanies this necessary struggle. This is just one of the multiple struggles for access to water throughout the country, a problem that is deepening in the rural areas of Argentina.

In our country, one in ten people have arsenic in their water and those who do not have direct access to water must walk between 4 and 6 hours to get it, a task carried out mainly by women. Today, water is highly threatened by population growth, increasing demands from agriculture and industry, and the worsening impacts of climate change. The biggest reasons for water scarcity are pollution from mining and harmful agricultural practices. Our waters cannot be polluted for the benefit of large corporations and financial speculation, today and every day we claim their sovereignty.

Sources:

-UN

-Fundación Aguas

-Comunidad Milpa