The ecological uprising once again invited the participants of public and political life to support the initiative "Water in Constitution", which requests that water be given the status of a constitutional category.
From that movement, they announced that the invitation comes at the moment when Serbia, but also a large part of Europe, are facing increasingly pronounced consequences of droughts, high temperatures and increasingly frequent ones problems with water supply.
The ecological uprising warns that dry periods are getting longer, that some springs are drying up, that the water level in rivers is getting lower, while the pressure on available water resources continues to grow, FoNet announced.
Due to such circumstances, the Ecological Uprising believes that the state should provide the highest level of legal protection of water as a public good and guarantee the right of citizens to water.
Water is a public good, but it is not mentioned in the Constitution
Serbia already legally protects water, but does not explicitly mention it in the Constitution.
According to current laws, water is a natural resource and a public good under a special protection regime. The Law on Water treats water and aquatic land as a water resource, while judicial practice states that water is a natural resource owned by the state.
However, the Constitution of Serbia does not contain an explicit constitutional provision on the right of citizens to water or a special constitutional category of "water" or "drinking water".
Therefore, water is protected by law, but it is not specifically protected at the highest - constitutional - level, which is the essence of the demand for changing the Constitution.
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"Right to Water" Initiative
Several years ago, the "Right to Water" initiative was formed, a network of organizations and individuals that demanded that water be recognized as a human right and protected by the Constitution of Serbia.
Their basic position was that every person must have access to a sufficient amount of quality water, that access to water must not depend on property status and that the supply of quality water to households should be guaranteed on a non-profit basis.
Also, the aforementioned initiative implies that water and water resources should remain a public good and that the Constitution needs to be changed so that the right to water receives the highest level of legal protection.
The initiative particularly emphasized opposition to the privatization of water resources and a greater role for local communities in water decision-making.
Draft Law on Drinking Water
While the Ecological Uprising is demanding a change to the Constitution, the Ministry of Health held a public hearing on the Draft Law on Drinking Water during April and May 2026.
There is no information that the Draft Law on drinking water has formally entered the parliamentary procedure.
It was envisaged that this law would be devoted exclusively to drinking water. According to the Government's official work plan for 2026, it would, among other things, regulate the health and quality of drinking water, the obligations of entities dealing with drinking water and the monitoring of the quality of water authority control.
So, the very name Drinking Water Law may sound like a law that guarantees every citizen of Serbia the right to water, but the official description of the law is currently more focused on the aforementioned segments of water supply, such as water quality and its healthiness and control, but that is not the same as a constitutional provision by which everyone has the right to access a sufficient amount of safe drinking water.
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