Water privatisation is not destiny: Uruguay's referendum on the right to water
On 31 October 2004, Uruguayans voted 64.7% in favour of writing ‘water is a natural resource essential to life’ into the constitution, and of restricting water supply to the state alone — making Uruguay the first country in the world to lock water privatisation out at constitutional level. The movement began with a tap being shut off in a coastal city.
The video won't play here. Listen to the audio instead:
The argument · tap a timestamp to hear it
The right to water was won in the streets, not at a negotiating table
The referendum result came in on 31 October 2004: 64.7% of Uruguayan voters backed amending the constitution to write the right to water into the country's foundational law. Carmen Soa, who was there, remembers the street outside the union hall blocked solid with people after polls closed — dancing, phoning their families, discarded ballot papers drifting through the air. This was not a victory produced by elite negotiation but a street-level popular movement, and even the people inside the union offices were swept up in it.
— Carmen SoaThe amendment did not just grant a right, it bolted the door on privatisation
The referendum amended the constitution to add the phrase ‘water is a natural resource essential to life’, and went further: drinking water and sanitation could be provided by the state exclusively, not by private companies. That made Uruguay the first country in the world to write the principle of public water provision into its constitution. The amendment did more than put a human right into the text — it directly foreclosed the possibility of any future government handing water supply to private firms by statute.
Privatisation raised prices and shut off the free taps too
The movement's origins go back to the 1990s. The coastal region of Maldonado granted a water concession to a private company for the first time — the first such concession since 1952. The government argued private investment was needed to upgrade the pipe network and meet growing demand; the company said it needed rate increases to finance the infrastructure. But activists pointed out that connection charges rose sharply and households that could not pay were cut off, while free taps in public spaces such as town squares and schools were shut down as well, hitting the poorest families living in informal housing hardest.
With no money for advertising, 10% in signatures can still force a referendum
In 2002, civic groups and unions formed the Commission in Defence of Water and Life and launched a national signature drive. Under Uruguay's electoral rules, collecting signatures from 10% of registered voters obliges the electoral authority to hold a referendum. Carmen says they handed out leaflets in markets under the slogans ‘water belongs to everyone’ and ‘water is life’; with no money for media advertising, all they could do was go door to door. Within a year they had 283,000 signatures, far above the threshold.
— Carmen SoaRemote villages were only reached because 23 people rode there on horseback
To carry the campaign to the most remote parts of the country, 23 union comrades set out on horseback in early October, crossing Uruguay and reaching small villages where there had been almost no organised presence before. On 31 October they rode up to the Legislative Palace in the capital, Montevideo, which drew wide media coverage. This long ride turned referendum campaigning into a symbolically charged social event, and it stitched rural and urban organising together.
A cup of mate turned a constitutional right into an everyday scene
Two days before the vote, supporters paid out of their own pockets for a television advert: a man holding a mate, with a voiceover saying ‘privatise water and you won't have water for your mate. Access to water is a basic human right — vote yes.’ By using Uruguay's national drink as the metaphor, the advert turned an abstract constitutional right into a daily domestic scene. It is a textbook case of grassroots organising using a cultural symbol to move people, and of creativity compensating for a thin budget.
— TV commercial narration64.7% turned a small country's referendum into an international event
Carmen went to vote at midday and then headed to the union building, where about seven television sets had been showing election coverage since eight in the morning. That evening the result came through: 64.7% in favour. The union's phones were overwhelmed; she says she was so busy that at times she could not tell which country or which language a call was coming from, because the vote had generated enormous international attention. The celebrations and press coverage turned a constitutional amendment in a small country into a milestone for the global water-rights movement.
— Carmen SoaWater is not a commodity: at least 30 countries followed it into their constitutions
Since Uruguay's referendum, at least 30 countries have written the right to water into their constitutions, and in 2010 the UN General Assembly formally recognised access to water and sanitation as a human right. Carmen sums it up: water is a human right because without water there is no life — like air, you must have it whether or not you have money. That line captures the ethical core of the whole movement: water is not a commodity but the precondition for life, and it cannot be handed over to the logic of profit.
— Carmen SoaIn their own words · checked verbatim
We went to a lot of markets. For example and handed out flyers which had the slogan water is for everyone and water is life
Carmen Soa4:10
Within a year the campaigners collected 283,000 signatures.More than enough to trigger a referendum.
Privatize water.And you'll have no water left for your mate.
TV commercial narration6:00
The phones at our trade union office were ringing off the hook
Carmen Soa7:20
It is a human right because without water, there is no life.
Carmen Soa7:50
Figures
| Share of referendum votes in favour | 64.7% | 7:00 |
| Signatures collected | 283,000 | 4:30 |
| Signature share needed to trigger a referendum | 10% of registered voters | 3:30 |
| Union members who rode across the country on horseback | 23 | 5:10 |
| Countries that later wrote the right to water into their constitutions | 30 | 8:08 |
| Year the UN recognised the right to water | 2010 | 8:08 |
| Referendum date | 31 October 2004 | 0:30 |
| Date of the previous private water concession | 1952 | 2:40 |
| Region of the first private water concession | Maldonado | 2:40 |
Glossary
- concession
- A contractual arrangement in which a government grants a specific company the right to operate a public service.
- mate
- A traditional herbal tea widely drunk in Uruguay and neighbouring countries, sipped from a gourd through a straw.
How to listen
Founders, policy researchers and NGO practitioners who care about utility privatisation, referendum mechanisms and social-movement organising.
Skip the ad at the top; the substance runs about 8 minutes.