The privatization of
water supply and sanitation in Bolivia took place during the second mandate of Bolivian President
Hugo Banzer
Hugo Banzer Suárez (; 10 May 1926 – 5 May 2002) was a Bolivian politician and military officer who served as the 51st president of Bolivia. He held the Bolivian presidency twice: from 1971 to 1978 in a military dictatorship; and then a ...
(1997-2001) in the form of two major private concessions: one in
La Paz
La Paz (), officially known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Spanish pronunciation: ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 816,044 residents as of 2020, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities ...
/
El Alto
El Alto (Spanish for "The Heights") is the second-largest city in Bolivia, located adjacent to La Paz in Pedro Domingo Murillo Province on the Altiplano highlands. El Alto is today one of Bolivia's fastest-growing urban centers, with an estim ...
to Aguas del
Illimani
Illimani (Aymara) is the highest mountain in the Cordillera Real (part of the Cordillera Oriental, a subrange of the Andes) of western Bolivia. It lies near the cities of El Alto and La Paz at the eastern edge of the Altiplano. It is the secon ...
S.A. (AISA), a subsidiary of the French
Suez
Suez ( ar, السويس '; ) is a seaport city (population of about 750,000 ) in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez (a branch of the Red Sea), near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same boun ...
(formerly Lyonnaise des Eaux) in 1997; and a second one in
Cochabamba
Cochabamba ( ay, Quchapampa; qu, Quchapampa) is a city and municipality in central Bolivia in a valley in the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cochabamba Department and the fourth largest city in Bolivia, with a population of 63 ...
to Aguas del Tunari, a subsidiary of the multinationals
Biwater
Biwater International Limited provides large-scale water and wastewater treatment solutions. It has completed over 25,000 projects in over 90 countries.
Adrian White, CBE, founded Biwater in 1968, and is the Executive Chairman. White is also the ...
and
Bechtel
Bechtel Corporation () is an American engineering, procurement, construction, and project management company founded in San Francisco, California, and headquartered in Reston, Virginia. , the ''Engineering News-Record'' ranked Bechtel as the sec ...
in 1999.
Background
The
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...
and the International Development Bank highlighted water privatization as a requirement for the Bolivian government in order to retain ongoing state loans. Bechtel Corporation of the United States, offered a deal with the Bolivian government in order to privatize water and profit. Renouncing the deal was seen as unthinkable to the leaders who felt pressure to keep the trust of international investors, as the economic crisis in Argentina was partly caused by a loss of credibility with international bankers.
Many of the poorest neighborhoods were not connected to the network of water systems, and paid even more for lower quality water from trucks and handcarts. Cooperative wells were built before the privatization could be expanded on and taken over by the Bechtel subsidiary at the expense of those who used the well and who had already paid for the existing structure.
Cochabamba Water War
In early 2000, protests against the raised price of water due to privatization had been growing, and martial law was declared. In April 2000, Víctor Hugo Daza, a seventeen-year-old student, was shot in the face by the Bolivian Army while protesting the increase of local water rates due to privatization. The man who killed him, Captain Robinson Iriarte, was trained as a counter-insurgent in the United States; he was acquitted of all responsibility for the murder in 2002. No civilian criminal-justice system would take the case on, so a military tribunal had final jurisdiction. Upon his acquittal, he was promoted to major.
Thousands of people captured the central plaza in Cochabamba and surrounded the fountain where Daza's body lay. Protestors comprised peasant irrigators, retired factory workers, union members, pieceworkers, sweatshop employees, street vendors, students from the University of Cochabamba, coca-leaf farmers and residential children.
Misicuni Dam
International Water has agreed to complete the
Misicuni Dam.
The dam will pipe water through the mountains and create hydroelectric water. When flooded, it will displace 1365 people and flood the
Tunari National Park
Tunari National Park is a national park located in the Cochabamba Department
Cochabamba ( ay, Quchapampa Jach'a Suyu, es, Departamento de Cochabamba , qu, Quchapampa Suyu), from Quechua ''qucha'' or ''qhucha'', meaning "lake", ''pampa'' me ...
.
Impact
It is argued that the privatization process did little to address water access and that the increase in water prices following such measures was met by an approximate 2% increase in levels of
poverty
Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse social, economic, and political causes and effects. When evaluating poverty in ...
.
Following two popular uprisings against water privatization, the first in
Cochabamba
Cochabamba ( ay, Quchapampa; qu, Quchapampa) is a city and municipality in central Bolivia in a valley in the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cochabamba Department and the fourth largest city in Bolivia, with a population of 63 ...
in April 2000 and the second in
La Paz
La Paz (), officially known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Spanish pronunciation: ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 816,044 residents as of 2020, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities ...
/
El Alto
El Alto (Spanish for "The Heights") is the second-largest city in Bolivia, located adjacent to La Paz in Pedro Domingo Murillo Province on the Altiplano highlands. El Alto is today one of Bolivia's fastest-growing urban centers, with an estim ...
in January 2005, the two concessions were terminated. In the latter case, Aguas de Illimani was replaced by the public utility Empresa Pública Social de Agua y Saneamiento (EPSAS).
The public water utility came under some criticism in 2008 due to water shortages, accounting errors, tariff increases and poor disaster preparedness. Consequently, representatives of the La Paz neighborhood association announced their intention to create their own service provider.
[{{cite news
, last =
, first =
, title = EPSAS recibe críticas a su labor y la transición agrava el problema.
, work =
, pages =
, publisher = La Razón
, date = 2008-02-11
, url = http://www.la-razon.com/versiones/20080211_006179/nota_273_546667.htm
, accessdate = 2008-02-14 , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20080212124710/http://www.la-razon.com/versiones/20080211_006179/nota_273_546667.htm , archivedate = 2008-02-12, language=es]
See also
*
Óscar Olivera, leader in the anti-water privatization movement of Bolivia
*
Water supply and sanitation in Bolivia
*
Water privatization
Water privatization is short for private sector participations in the provision of Water supply, water services and sanitation. Water privatization has a variable history in which its popularity and favorability has fluctuated in the market and p ...
*''
Quantum of Solace
''Quantum of Solace'' is a 2008 spy film and the twenty-second in the List of James Bond films, ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions. It is the sequel to Casino Royale (2006 film), ''Casino Royale'' (2006). Directed by Marc Forst ...
''
References
Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
Water supply and sanitation in Bolivia
Government of Bolivia
Economy of Bolivia
Privatization in Bolivia