Congress had been scheduled to approve the bill on Tuesday after lawmakers of the ruling centrist PRI party, right-wing opposition PAN party and from the PVEM green party approved the proposed legislation on March 4 in the committee stage.
Civil organizations and NGOs asked lawmakers to reject the bill, describing it as "unsustainable, unfair and discriminatory," the Coalition of Mexican Organizations for the Right to Water said in a joint statement during a press conference in Mexico City on Monday.
The organizations have also asked people to protest against the bill on March 14, the so-called International Day of Action for Rivers and Against Dams, and also on March 22 during World Water Day.
FRACKING
The civil organizations have repeatedly said the bill seeks to privatize the resource and promote the use of water in fracking to extract shale gas.
"It is estimated that a shale gas well requires between 9,000 and 29,000m3 of water per well," Claudia Campero, a water campaigner for Blue Planet Project and Food and Water Watch in Mexico told BNamericas.
"The water leaves its hydrological cycle when it's used for fracking... the water from the wells is water that cannot be cleaned with existing technology," she said.
"Despite all international warnings
In addition, "the initiative has completely omitted the right to sanitation," it says.
"The State must guarantee, without discrimination, that everyone has access, physically and economically, to sanitation."
POLLUTION
The law should include a model that conserves water sources in order to have enough quality water for present and future generations, the statement says.
However, "this bill does the opposite, and allows rivers to be polluted with chemicals."
One of the proponents of the law, PRI deputy Kamel Athie Flores, has said the bill includes measures to prevent pollution in rivers and sets penalties of up to 3.5mn pesos (US$229,000) for firms that contaminate rivers.
However, the fine is seen as relatively low compared with the estimated 20bn pesos it will cost to restore two rivers that were polluted, leaving thousands without clean water, after an acid spill at a mine owned by Grupo Mexico in the northern state of Sonora.
"The sanctions are soft against the consequences of discharges of chemicals into water," Alberto Serdán, an associate professor at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE), told BNamericas.
"Contaminating water may even be profitable for companies as, faced with the choice of investing in water treatment or paying the fine, it would be more attractive to pay the fine," he said.
The organizations aim to collect
Among the civil organizations against the bill are the Coalition of Mexican Organizations for the Right to Water, Greenpeace Mexico, Fresh Water and the Mexican Alliance against Fracking.