bolivia: from the frontlines of the
water wars - interview with osvaldo pareja,
cochabamba
ann
doherty & antia portillo, foe
international
Osvaldo speaking at the
September 2002 demonstration organized by
FoE Netherlands, parallel to the
Johannesburg Earth Summit in September
2002.
“Many years ago, the government of
Bolivia was responsible for subsidizing
water services. Water was recognized as
important for the population’s health, for
the reduction of child mortality and
morbidity rates. But as a consequence of
the neoliberal policies implemented since
the 1980s, the region has been undergoing
intensive economic globalization and
privatization of basic services and the
transport, energy and education
sectors.
When Aguas del Tunari - a joint venture
of the US-based Bechtel and the Italian
Edison companies — first came to Bolivia,
the government promised no more than a ten
percent increase in water costs as a result
of the privatization. People were outraged
when their water bills showed increases of
up to 300 percent. Academics,
environmentalists, urban workers and
farmers came together to form the
Coordinadora de Defensa del Agua y la Vida
(Committee for the Defense of Water and
Life).
This was an awakening. People were ready
to defend their rights, and started
carrying out days of action in early 2000.
Simultaneous mobilizations took place in
the countryside and the city, closing the
roads for days. During the final
mobilization in April 2000, more than
100,000 people demonstrated in the center
of Cochabamba. The military was brought in
to contain the demonstrators. They used
tear gas, and a student leader was shot and
killed.
The national government accepted our
demands: Aguas del Tunari must leave, and
water supply and distribution be controlled
by a public enterprise formed and managed
by the local government, the trade union
and the Coordinadora, representing the
regional population. Despite inheriting a
technologically underdeveloped business
with enormous debts, the new enterprise
went straight to work piping water to poor
areas of Cochabamba without water access
under the slogan “water is a public good
and not a commodity”.’
This was the first popular victory
against the neoliberal agenda in 15 years
of defeats. But the government was left
with a big problem, and that was that it
had signed a 40-year contract with the
company. Aguas del Tunari, now operating
under the name of Bechtel, has demanded $25
million in damages and lost profits.
It is unethical to demand this amount of
money. After all, Aguas del Tunari made no
significant investments to improve our
water supply service. And furthermore, in a
poor country like Bolivia the US$25 million
claimed by the transnational company could
mean 125 thousand water connections in
Cochabamba, or 3,000 annual doctor’s
salaries in rural areas, or 12,000 annual
teacher’s salaries. But it’s not just the
money that’s the problem. We deplore the
moral sanction that Bechtel is using to
punish people who are resisting the
privatization of what they feel is their
basic right.”
