Another Water Revolt Begins in Bolivia

Just as the Cochabamba water revolt seems to be entering its final act – the collapse of the $25 million legal case against Bolivia by Bechtel and its co-investors – another water revolt is set to erupt 200 miles north of here in El Alto, the poor neighbor of Bolivia’s capital, La Paz.

As in Cochabamba, the public water system of El Alto was privatized in 1997 when the World Bank made privatization of water a condition of a loan to the Bolivian government. Now the water system is operated by the French water giant, Suez, and a set of minority shareholders that includes, among others, an arm of the World Bank.

According to community groups in El Alto the company has raised water prices by 35% since it took over and poor families who want to connect to the water system are expected to pay more than $445 – an amount greater than six months of the national minimum wage. More seriously, the company has allegedly left more than 200,000 people with no possibility of access to water at all by failing to expand service to El Alto’s growing outskirts.

Here is the link to my complete article syndicated across the US today by Pacific News Service. I offered the water company an opportunity to respond if they did so by my deadline of mid-day Friday. Unfortunately that response came four hours after my article was filed. In the next few days I’ll be sending out an updated article, including the water company’s response, via our Democracy Center newsletter. If you aren’t already receiving it and wish to, send us a note to this e-mail: info@democracyctr.org.

Meanwhile, the public pressure aimed at Abengoa of Spain to join Bechtel in abandoning the Cochabamba case continues to be extraordinary. Judging by the copies I am receiving, Abengoa has already received well over 200 e-mails from all over the world. Keep those coming (see my blog below from yesterday).