Should The Government Privatize Cochabamba And Bolivia?

Margaret Mead once said: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.” In Bolivia, these citizens were the local people of Cochabamba who rallied together and fought for what they believed was just, the right to clean drinking water. By pushing out a large corporation and going against the government, this ‘Water War’ became known as a “public uprising against water prices” (Olivera, Oscar). Named after large protests in opposition to the privatization of the city’s water system and spikes in the resident’s water bills, this battle showed how the unfair treatment of an underdeveloped Latin American country by the United States and World Bank could create unrest within a group. The ‘Water War’ has become
a symbol for the fight for common rights and corporate discrimination against impoverished populations.
This inequitable treatment compromised the sustainability of Cochabamba and Bolivia by unsettling the relationship between citizens and their government as well as compromising the people of Cochabamba’s water resource. Beginning in 1999, American company Bechtel made it’s way into Cochabamba, Bolivia and created Aguas del Tunari, a joint venture which would privatize the people’s water and subsequently raise prices by 300% (ejatlas). Pushed for by the World Bank, the Bolivian government was influenced to privatize their water in order to receive a loan for new piping in Cochabamba. Although a loan would be given, the people of Cochabamba would in turn also have to pay in part for the infrastructure. In Bolivia’s third largest and also one of its poorest cities, there was immediate dissatisfaction as the cost of water rose to nearly being 1/2 of their monthly salary (Maude, Barlow). How would poor farmers, a majority indigenous peoples, and lower class citizens fund the
building of a multi million dollar construction plan? The rising prices obviously presented an issue as from one day to the next, the cost of water in Cochabamba rose to prices that people in Washington D.C. were not even paying for access to their own tap water (The Economist). Suddenly, the Bolivian government had put themselves in a position where the World Bank was not willing to distribute a loan unless the public water system was sold to the private sector and the cost of building new water pipes in the city was passed onto the consumers. In opposition to Aguas del Tunari and this monopoly, locals formed la Coordinadora, a group which would advocate for affordable, clean water (Barlow, Maude). La Coordinadora in response to Bechtel/Aguas del Tunari organized protests in the center of Cochabamba where people went to show their disapproval of having to pay for water access which previously had been a natural free right. From these protests and unrest, the Cochabamba ‘Water War’ began and thousands rallied together to the fight for basic access to a human necessity. Aguas del Tunari’s presence in Cochabamba and the privatization of the city’s water sources is a prime example of the unfair treatment of a lower economic group in respect to the distribution and availability of water.
Following the privatization, 55% of people were left without access to water (ejatlas). A necessity which was once there to the people was in effect taken away as bills soared to numbers which were not feasible to pay off. Water, which makes up more than half of the human body and almost all of the world, began to be treated like a commodity rather than a natural right. Not only did water began to cost more than food for most but permits were also required to collect rainwater or take from community-built wells (Barlow, Maude). In this sense, the people of Cochabamba were taken advantage of by their government and were expected to give most of their salary away to fund for pipes which would not be ready for another 2 years follow rate hikes. Never included in both the development and implementation of the privatization of the city’s water, they were not given the right to know what was happening to their water. Often taken for granted, Cochabamba’s water was no longer affordable, available, or treated as a basic right to
all.