The Politics of Water in Bolivia

"Etched deeply into the granite walls just inside the entrance of the World Bank headquarters in Washington are the words, "Our dream, a world free of poverty." Earlier this month in Bolivia, the citizens of South America's poorest country sent the bank a message once again that the poor aren't too keen on the part of that dream that involves handing their water over to foreign corporations.

On January 10 the citizens of El Alto took to the streets en masse to demand that their water system, privatized in 1997 under World Bank pressure, be returned to public hands. Three days later Bolivia's president issued a decree canceling the water concession, led by the French water giant Suez, and an arm of the World Bank itself. The El Alto water revolt follows, by five years exactly, the now famous revolt against water privatization in Cochabamba, in which a company controlled by the Bechtel Corporation was ousted from the country."

Makes me sick that something as simple as water is or is trying to be controlled by big business. Such as Bechtel, a huge organization which I enjoyed reading here was kicked out of Cochabamba over water. It's disgusting to see large corporations trying to control water in some of the most impoversihed areas in the world. Now Suez and World Bank are trying to do the same thing...over WATER!

What do the mega-rich and corporate america not want to own/control?

the good news is that joe average KICKED the corporations' collective arse.
look forward to more of the same. joe average isn't as average as joe industrialist thinks.

Originally posted by Zabilgy
Bechtel, a huge organization which I enjoyed reading
here was kicked out of Cochabamba over water.

A friend of mine works for Bechtel. His wife was born in
Bolivia. I'm going to ask him about this. I hadn't heard
it before.

We spent a month in Bolivia while adopting our daughter
from an orphanage in Santa Cruz. Everything there runs
of bribes and family connections. Even something simple
like getting a prescription filled .... EVERYTHING. One thing
I really liked about the Bolivian people - when ever we took
a taxi ride and we paid the taxi driver, he would take the
money we had given him, make the sign of the cross, and
say "Gracias El Senior" (thank you God). They were thankful
for everything and anything that came their way.
VERY NICE PEOPLE!

that doesn't mean they are nice. it means they are desperate. Still, the cochabamba incident was a heart-warming reminder of the power of the people.

It is definitely nice to see the People win once in a while. As the world gets closer and closer to this "New World Order" I believe the People can expect to win less and less....sad but true!

More about the politics of water in this book:
Vandana Shiva "Water Wars" Southend Press, Cambridge, MA.
It's a good book, but too much enviromentaly focused (not a bad thing, but this is at the political and economical parts' expenses) and not as well documented as it should.