A bill intends to declare a moratorium on the granting of concessions for water use across the country for a period of at least three years.

From a statement issued by the National Assembly of Panama:

As part of the celebration of Earth Day, the Commission on Population and Environment is promoting a legislative initiative to declare a moratorium on granting concessions for water use throughout the national territory.

The proposal stems from the chiricano Deputy Jose Luis Castillo, who based it on the fact that this vital element for life and the quality of the population is used primarily on hydropower projects, in agricultural irrigation systems and lastly for human consumption.

According to Castillo, a native of a province where, he said, there is a proliferation of dam projects that have slowly eroded their depth, there is an urgent need to pass legislation that prioritizes the use of that resource to meet the demands of the population and then direct it to the production of agriculture and after that to electricity.