Water Privatization in Cochabamba, Bolivia:
The Water War
How would you feel if water, an international human right, became a private good controlled by a foreign third-party organization?
Water privatization has been an important debate for much of the last century, and there have been many cases that have had different outcomes. The Bolivian water wars represent one such example that embodies the many dilemmas that come with the question of whether water should be a privatized resource.
Cochabamba is a Bolivian city that was selected as a site for a water privatization project due to the local municipality, SEMAPA’s, failure at adequately providing clean, reliable, widely accessible water to its community members. A third-party organization, Aguas del Tunari, in partnership with Bechtel (an American company), was chosen by the Bolivian government to replace the local water company in managing the water system for Cochabamba and improving efficiency so that residents would have an inexpensive, streamlined water source.
However, this deal received backlash from the community members of Cochabamba due to its failure to provide for the community in the way that was promised. This case is a classic example of the benefits and drawbacks of water privatization, and the ultimate dilemma of whether water should be a privatized commodity good or remain as a natural resource that excludes the economic factor that many stakeholders are so dependent on.
Note: This version of “Water Privatization in Cochabamba, Bolivia” has been modified for use in the Climate Solutions series developed by the University of Michigan's Center for Academic Innovation in collaboration with Professor Rajiv Ghimire. The original can be found at https://www.learngala.com/cases/water-war.
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