In Huehuetenango, Guatemala, the Assembly of the Peoples of Huehuetenenango in Defense of the Territory, and for the Autonomy and Self-Determination of the People -ADH- has achieved 4 Municipal Water Protection Agreements. They are leveraging the people’s commitment to care for Mother Water by fighting for their municipal authorities to respect these agreements.

The Peoples in each municipality have organized in different ways to achieve these agreements, the last one that was signed was recently published in the Diario de Centroamérica. Since 2021, the community of San Ildefonso Ixtahuacán has worked with the Local Development Councils -COCODES in spanish- of 48 communities to advocate with the municipal authority, which has been widely celebrated in the community.

In this regard, Miguel Perez of ADH points out that “As it says in Article 127 of the Political Constitution of the Republic of Guatemala, water is public domain, therefore, it should not be privatized. So this is one of the points most emphasized in the communities and this is the demand of the people of San Ildefonso Ixtahuacán”.

“Many now want to take further advantage of the water, that is why they [businesses] want to pass  privatization laws, but as we have said, all natural resources have no owner. We want this to be respected. The State of Guatemala does not like the publication of a Municipal Agreements. Therefore, in San Ildefonso Ixtahuacán the communities organized themselves, they [decided that they would] pay the cost of the publication in the Diario de Centroamérica. Each community gave their economic contribution for this to be published. The authorities are not interested in that, and we already know that the four municipalities where we have achieved the Municipal Water Protection Agreements, nobody has been interested in publishing in the Diario de Centroamérica due to the interests of private companies, that is why they do not want to make this public.”

Finally, Miguel said the struggle they are engaging with in the communities emphasizes that “At a national and international level we want the human right to water to be respected because this is in all the agreements, treaties of America, that is why we demand it, that is why we protest, so that it is respected”.

To fight for Water is to fight for Life!
Long live the peoples who defend our Mother Earth and our Mother Water

Read below the spanish version of the Water Protection Agreement published in the Diario de Centroamérica.