Health Care Under the Knife by Howard Waitzkin

Author:Howard Waitzkin [Waitzkin, Howard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Monthly Review Press
Published: 2018-03-14T22:00:00+00:00

RESISTANCE TO PRIVATIZATION OF WATER IN BOLIVIA

Although clean water remains a fundamental goal of public health, the world’s declining supplies of fresh water have emerged as a new frontier for corporate profit. Major corporations trying to sell water as a commodity have sought to privatize public water sources. In this context, the long-term resistance against privatization of water in Bolivia shows how a previously marginalized population can organize to win a struggle against powerful corporate forces that seek to commodify a critical public health resource.

Water availability in the province of Cochabamba, Bolivia, historically has posed serious problems. Climate and environmental conditions made this province a prime agricultural area. Agricultural workers (regantes, or those in charge of irrigation) managed dwindling water resources through irrigation practices rooted in cultural traditions known as usos y costumbres (uses and customs). Accelerated urbanization increased the demand for drinking water and water for domestic uses. Newer policies depleted underground water resources and favored urban development at the expense of the rural population.15

In 1997, the World Bank promoted privatization of Cochabamba’s public water utility based on a rationale of eliminating public subsidies, securing capital for water development, and attracting skilled management. In its characteristic fashion, the Bank pressured the Bolivian government by making international debt relief in the amount of $600 million contingent on the privatization of water.16 New legislation, Ley 2029, allowed a private corporation, Aguas del Tunari, to lease Cochabamba’s public water and sewer company (Servicio Municipal de Agua Potable y Alcantarillado, SEMAPA). The contract effectively awarded Aguas del Tunari monopoly control over water services for forty years. The terms of the contract also prevented the regantes from using water in their traditional ways and allowed the company to appropriate any and all water sources, including neighborhood wells and rainwater. A few weeks after the contract was signed, water bills increased by an average of 200 percent, a change known as the tarifazo.

The Water War, a series of collective actions that took place during 2000, quickly ensued. The Coalition for the Defense of Water and Life (Coordinadora por la Defensa del Agua y la Vida) emerged to coordinate the mobilization of farmers, factory workers, professional people, neighborhood associations, teachers, retirees, the unemployed, and university students. These efforts included roadblocks, strikes, mass demonstrations and public assemblies, and a referendum. An intensive parallel investigation discovered among other things that Aguas del Tunari was a “ghost consortium” of enterprises grouped together under the control of Bechtel, a large U.S.-based corporation, in which prominent Bolivian politicians maintained economic interests. Making this information public allowed the Coordinadora to gather support.

During these contentious months, several developments strengthened the popular mobilization to block the privatization of water. The citizens of Cochabamba refused to pay their water bills, which they burned in highly symbolic public acts. On various occasions, the city was paralyzed by demonstrations, barricades, and strikes; economic activity was largely disrupted. The government responded with police and military actions, which led protestors to escalate their demands. A referendum organized in March

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