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"People's Control" in Cochabamba, Bolivia

In 2000, in a struggle termed the “Water War,” residents of the Bolivian city of Cochabamba manifested their opposition to a damaging water privatization by taking to the streets in protest. The massive display of civil anger forced the Bolivian government to expel the foreign private consortium, led by controversial US company Bechtel, which had raised rates up to 300 percent.

After the Water War, a Cochabamba civil society group, the Coalition for the Defense of Water and Life (the Coordinadora), which had been the chief instigator of the protests against privatization, assumed control, along with the Municipality, of the water sector in Cochabamba. Rather than just turning the management of the water back to the state, which had ushered in privatization in the first place, those involved decided to pursue a truer vision of public control, organized around the principals of transparency, efficiency, participation, and social justice.

In order to be as inclusive as possible in the planning of the new project, the Coordinadora held a series of workshops for residents of the city and invited proposals from various constituencies on the shape of the future water service. Eventually, with participation from and negotiations between the Coordinadora, the Mayoralty of Cochabamba, the society of professionals, a workers group, and others, a framework for a water utility, to be held in a public trust and, more importantly, responsive to the people it serves, was agreed upon. Since 2002, the Cochabamba water sector has been managed by a board of five representatives – three voted in by residents, one from the professionals society, and one from the workers group; the President’s office is filled on an ex officio basis by the Mayor, and the Manager of the utility is chosen by the board. The posts are not remunerated (aside from expenses), and terms expire every two years.

The new water company utility has faced problems common to all essential services agencies operating in developing world contexts, for instance the tricky imperative of network expansion, and the community must continue the fight against privatization, currently against German Development Agency (the development arm of the German government, similar to USAID) efforts to introduce more private sector participation (PSP). However, this effort toward peoples’ control of water has been relatively and remarkably successful. The Coordinadora advocated for and won legislation whose language promotes indigenous water rights and water defined as a public good. The company performed well enough to qualify for a loan from the Inter-American Development Bank, which, unfortunately, is one of the only sources of capital in the region; the Cochabamba utility’s effort currently constitutes one of the most successful loan packages in the sector. Moreover, experts estimate that, without foreign private involvement, three million dollars in capital stay in Cochabamba every year, instead of leaving the country for the pockets of rich US stockholders.

For more information contact:

Coordinadora de Defensa del Agua y de la Vida
Calle Bolivar 310, 3 Piso
Cochabamba, Bolivia
Tel/Fax: (591-4) 4503530
fabrilco@supernet.com.bo

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