What was the Cochabamba Water War?In 1997, the government of Bolivia made an agreement with the World Bank to privatize the water in Cochabamba, Bolivia in exchange for continued aid to water development projects. Bolivia granted a 40-year water privatization contract to Aguas del Tunari, a subsidiary of the San Francisco-based Bechtel Corporation. This gave the company control of over half a million people’s water supply in Cochabamba, Bolivia and the surrounding communities. The contract led to a surge in water prices, doubling the cost of water and in some cases even tripling it (Shultz, 2008).
Beginning in November and December of 1999, the people of Cochabamba, led by members of La Coordinadora, began fighting back through a series of protests and public uprisings. The water resistance movement was met by aggressive opposition from the Bolivian police and military, which caught national and international attention for the uprisings and confrontations that came to be known as the Cochabamba Water War. In February, the government caved and began to negotiate the terms of the contract between La Coordinadora and Bechtel. In April of 2000, the government terminated Bechtel's contract (Shultz, 2008). |
What led to this?Water has been an issue in Bolivia and Cochabamba (Bolivia's third largest city) long before the water revolts of 1999. The primary problems were the city's growing population, decreasing sources of natural water supply, and widespread poverty. Resulting deforestation drained the once lush land of its viable water supply. At the same time, Bolivia was falling deeper into debt. Eventually the Bolivian government realized that it could no longer rely on runoff from the Andes to adequately supply the city's growing population. They needed to invest in the construction of dams and pipelines to bring water to the town from the nearby wet mountains.
In the 1960s Cochabamba’s leaders began looking for assistance from abroad. In 1967, the city secured a $14 million water development loan from the Washington-based Inter-American Development Bank. In exchange for the aid, IDB required Bolivia to set up a public water system company, SEMAPA (Servicio Municipal de Agua Potable y Alcantarillado), to develop an expanded water system. In February 1996, Cochabamba’s mayor announced to the press that the World Bank was making privatization of SEMAPA a condition of an urgent $14 million loan to expand water service. |