Costa Rica's congress is discussing a bill to modify the country's constitution to identify water as a natural resource for public use, Christian democrat party PUSC congressman Jose Roberto Rodriguez told BNamericas.

The bill, presented by Rodriguez, aims to modify section 14 of article 121, to ratify that water must be controlled by the state, and cannot be obtained by private firms.

The main purpose of the bill is to avoid excessive exploitation of the country's abundant water reserves, according to Rodriguez.