colombia: privatizing community
aqueducts
Under
pressure from the Inter American
Development Bank, public enterprises
previously responsible for the management
of Colombia’s hydrological basins are being
privatized. Even aqueducts are targeted for
privatization, despite the fact that local
communities financed and built them and
have managed them for generations.
As part of this privatization process,
the Colombian government has also launched
an initiative to create water basin
councils. However, far from being an
instrument to improve citizen involvement,
these councils increase private sector
control. Participation in the councils is
dependent upon levels of water use by
so-called “stakeholders”, meaning that the
interests of the largest water consumers –
primarily industry and plantation owners -
tend to supersede the interests of the
peasants and local communities that have
traditionally managed the water basins.
more information
CENSAT Agua Viva/Friends of the
Earth Colombia
