Bolivia: Mobilising communities - the Cochabamba ‘War for Water’

There have been numerous examples worldwide of communities mobilising to voice their opposition to unjust water policies. Perhaps the best publicised example of such community mobilisation was the Cochabamba “War for Water”.

In the city of Cochabamba in 1999, the Bolivian government granted a 40-year contract to provide water services to Cochabamaba to a company called Aguas del Tunari, a multinational company investing in Bolivia’s water sector.

Due to what the local population considered to be inequitable and unfair fixed pricing schemes, that had doubled and even tripled the cost of water and left the majority of residents unable to afford water, the presence of this transnational corporation and its management of the local water supply generated increasing and vociferous opposition from the local community. Organizations were created solely to oppose the company and its policies, in order to defend the rights of the local population.

One such organisation, ‘La Coordinadora de Defensa del Agua y de la Vida’ (Coordinating Committee for the Defence of Water and Life) together with other local organisations, initiated what was later known as “The Water War”, a sustained series of marches, negotiations and demands for the revision of national water policies and a repeal of the contract to Aguas del Tunari.

As the ‘Water War’ progressed, a “popular poll’ was held in March 2000, in which more than 50,000 people voted, the majority for the cancellation of the concession contract and for continued state management of water resources.

The government dismissal of this poll prompted what was to become the climax of the War for Water, in which highways were blockaded, a general strike was called and thousands of people, the so-called “Water Warriors”, including housewives, senior citizens, and children, took to the streets to resist the privatisation of water supplies.

The ensuing riots resulted in violent confrontations between protesters and the military, but eventually the government conceded and Aguas del Tunari was forced to withdraw from Cochabamba. In addition, compensation was awarded to those injured by the water war, and those protesters who had been unjustly arrested and detained were released.

The Cochabamba case is exemplary because it demonstrates a case in which, through public participation, citizens have demanded their right to water and have mobilized, created institutions and coordinated actions to exercise this right, refusing to have water transformed from a social good into a publicly traded commodity. The principle motto used in the campaign against the company was “Water is Ours”.