CK Water 15-18

8/6/2019 CK Water 15-18

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/ck-water-15-18 1/41CORPORATE KNIGHTS WATER AND POLLUTION ISSUE 2006

COCHABAMBA, Bolivia. During therst wave o protests to shake the town inarly February o 2000, Juan Marcelo Rojasan through a cloud o tear gas to rescue a

Bolivian fag. A policeman had just seizedt rom another protestor. Rojas grabbed the

fag and or a moment the two played tug o war. With his ree hand, Rojas pulled downhe policeman’s gas mask, and as the ocerhoked he ripped the fag ree. Blinded byhe gas, Rojas chose a direction at randomnd ran. “I was very lucky,” he said, smiling.I ended up in the arms o my ellow wa-er warriors.” Ever since, people have called

him Banderas, rom the Spanish word ban-

era—fag.Banderas, a works inspector, is an enthu-

iastic young man with a boyish ace whohowed me around Semapa, the city’s pub-c water utility. Wearing a track suit under

his canvas technician’s vest, he stood outrom the rest o the workers, who knownd like him. Last April, he participated inour-day hunger strike to oust the utility’s

publicpolicy

P H O T O : G o n z a l o O r d o n e z

AFTER THEWATER REVOLUTION

Land-locked Boliviaput water privatizationon the map. A complex ssue? Not for some

people.

by Daniel Aldana Cohen

8/6/2019 CK Water 15-18


corrupt manager. The ollowing November,he went on a 15-day hunger strike to bringdown the corrupt leadership o Semapa’sworkers’ union.

Semapa’s headquarters is a sprawlingcomplex o weather-worn brick and white-washed cement buildings. Just past the em-ployee entrance, I saw drops o water tricklerom a stone ountain. Nearby, a gardener

hosed down a patch o grass already so wetthat water had collected in puddles. Thiswas the dry season, when it rained less thanonce a month.

Under orders rom the World Bank in1999, Bolivia eectively sold Semapa or 30years to the Caliornia-based multinationalBechtel, only to have the people o Coch-abamba win it back in early 2000 ater aseries o huge demonstrations involvingeveryone in the city. This was the now-a-mous Water War. But six years later, howmuch has the water situation improved or

Bolivia’s poor?

One thing is certain: they couldn’t beworse o. The privatization o Semapa wasan intolerable insult. The Bechtel subsidiary

got control o the municipality’s entire watersystem, including the city’s aquier. Its con-tract contained a guaranteed prot margino at least 15 per cent, indexed to US infationrates. The company had intended to chargetaris on all water consumed by everyone inCochabamba—even i it came rom neigh-bourhood wells built by consumer coopera-tives whose construction was paid or by us-ers and international aid. The subsidiary’sstart-up capital was US$12,000—laughable,given that privatization had been sold as theonly way to generate massive investments.During the ew months the Bechtel subsid-iary was in charge, water rates were hikedin inexplicable ways, with many users ac-ing raises in the neighbourhood o 200 percent.

Beyond the grotesque particulars o theBechtel deal, the rate hikes exempliy theundamental problem o privatization poli-cy: it passes the cost o inrastructure expan-sion on to consumers who simply cannotaord it.

Since the Water War was won in mid-2000, Semapa has aced legion internal

problems—corruption, ineciency, mis-management—and has also had to dealwith hostile national governments.

Most o the city’s poorest inhabitants,who live in the Zona Sur, a dusty, unpaved,urban improvisation, are still where theywere in 2000—stranded without service.The people here comprise close to hal o Cochabamba. They get their water rom

street vendors or i they’re lucky, small wellsdug and operated by neighbourhood collec-tives. Water is scarce here and costs up toten times as much as the wealthier people inthe city centre pay. The quality is ar worse.Many people bathe in the water they use towash their clothes.

Abraham Grandenier, the President o Asicasur—an association o water collec-tives—told me that Semapa’s ailure to bringmore water to the Zona Sur is the reason hisorganization is pushing to turn the area intoits own independent municipality.

The situation has improved, however.To-

day Semapa pumps almost 50 per cent morewater into the city than it did in 2000, andat higher pressure. Water service to many

homes has increased rom ve to eighteenhours a day. Water quality has improved.Drinking water and/or sewage services nowreach close to 60 per cent o Cochabambi-nos, up rom 50 per cent in 2000. In 2005,ater its internal shake-up, the utility nallybecame nancially solvent.

In his oce, under a large poster o CheGuevara, the new secretary general o theSemapa workers’ union Hector UgarteRivero spoke to me about nally honouringthe city’s citizens’ sacrices in their ghtor a public water service. He was grinning.Semapa had just secured a long-sought $10million loan rom the Inter-American De-velopment Bank to modernize its pipes andexpand its inrastructure into the Zona Sur.

That was then.This summer, Eduardo Rojas Castelú

was installed as Semapa’s new manager,against the wishes o the union and the Co-alition or the Deence o Water and Lie, orla Coordinadora—the umbrella group thatorganized the water warriors and expelledBechtel. Rojas Castelú’s curriculum vitae in-cludes working or a previous government

to privatize the country’s water services,he’s been described to me by various peas incompetent, corrupt, ridiculous, anclown”. His installation by Semapa’s dtors showed that the city’s social movemstill haven’t succeeded in exerting eesocial control over their utility.

Semapa’s “endless crisis,” as a local demic put it, is a classic example o

diculty o institutionalizing revoluEradicating local corruption turned out tmuch harder than booting out a oreigntruder. Plus, since the Water War, there been other struggles to absorb the enero activists. La Coordinadora oten chosdivert its resources toward other ghts,trying to nationalize the country’s gas oil reserves.

His straight black hair aside, Jim Shdirector o the Cochabamba-based Demracy Centre, bears an uncanny resemblto John Kerry—he’s tall, thin, and has

same long ace. He had recently move

Cochabamba rom Caliornia when Water War broke out. Shultz told me Semapa has been hamstrung by pol

ever since, and that “Cochabamba is bo now, though not outrageously—andas much as oreigners think.”

In Bolivia, the poorest country in SAmerica with a population o about million, the Water War marks the beginno recent history. I once heard Shultzthat Evo Morales—the country’s rst-indigenous president and a rm letididn’t create the massive social upheathat culminated in his landslide electiontory as the head o his political party, Mimiento al Socialismo (MAS), in Decem2005. Rather, he was the man who had positioned himsel as the social unrelectoral outlet. “You should think o as a surer who caught a really good waShultz said.

To extend the metaphor, the Water was the tsunami that set the events in tion. In airness, as the leader o a masunion o cocaleros—coca lea growers—rales took part in the Water War, ghtinthe street alongside la Coordinadora. Budidn’t lead the Water War any more he led the massive mobilizations o B

Under orders from the World Bank, Bolivia effectively sold Semapa to the

California-based multinational Bechtel in 1999.

The privatization of Semapa was an intolerable insult.

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ebruary in 2003, the gas war o 2003, theecond water war o El Alto in 2004, theecond gas war o 2005, or the numerousmaller waves o protest that have rocked

Bolivia since 2000. Though he has beenalled the puppet-master o these protests,he reality is almost the opposite. “Evo is theroduct o the Water War,” is a sentence I

have heard over and over.

Ever since the state mines were dissolvedn 1985, relatively non-hierarchical, socialmovements have slowly taken over romentralized unions as the main orce o so-ial change in Bolivia. The 2000 Water War

was their culmination.The Evo Morales administration constantly

ays homage to the social movements withoutwhom it wouldn’t be in power. Morales has in-orporated (some say co-opted) many o theireaders into his administration, even creating

national water ministry—the frst in theAmericas—in response to their demands.

The new water minister, Abel Mamani,used to be the leader o the militant neigh-ourhood association o El Alto, a ast-grow-ng 800,000-person city built by poor, in-

digenous migrants. It sits on the plateauverlooking La Paz at an altitude o 4,000

metres. In El Alto you can get a sunburn atnoon and rostbite at midnight. It is also themost politically organized and radicalized

lace in Bolivia, having toppled two presi-dents in three years.

In 2004, during the country’s secondWater War, the city rose up against a sub-

idiary o Suez, a French multi-nationalhat had taken over water services in La Paznd El Alto in 1997 (ater protracted nego-iations, Suez is now leaving Bolivia). Some00,000 residents in El Alto still had no

water hook-up, and would have had to paybout US$200 to get one, an impossiblerice here. A recent audit ound that sincerriving in Bolivia, Suez has ailed to meethe requirements or new connections laidut in its contract by 33 per cent, amongther violations.Mamani, 38, has a striking, photoge-

nic ace—dark brown with clean eatures.When I spoke to him in his ofce in lateAugust, he seemed tired. The local mediahad been hounding him about the delays inxpelling Suez—he had said they would beone within weeks—and the ministry wasuering rom internal squabbling. I asked

him i the people o Cochabamba and ElAlto were better o today ater their respec-ive Water Wars.

He had little to say about El Alto, “Waitnd see. Suez will be leaving soon and we’llet to work.

MAkINg ThE MOST Of ExISTINg SUppLIES

There are only two ways to ensure sae, adequate water supplies or human consumption and

agriculture: increase supplies or improve management. IDRC’s main approach is to support

research on the management o existing supplies. Because people are more likely to use water

sustainably i they have a say in the way their water is managed, the research involves commu-

nities in identiying problems, fnding solutions, and managing resources.

Here are some examples o that approach.

an end to the water wars

In Bolivia, researchers combined state-o-the-art modeling and GIS technology, feld surveys,

and public consultation to identiy the most efcient and equitable allocation o water on the

arid altiplano. Findings led to the adoption o an irrigation law that guarantees armers’ and

Indigenous people’s traditional rights, and to the establishment o a Water Ministry, a Bolivian

frst.

from sinks to gardens

Near Amman, Jordan—one o the most water-scarce countries in the world—researchers

developed an inexpensive wastewater recycling and treatment system that allows “greywater”

rom household sinks and showers to be reused in gardens. Initial water savings were esti-

mated to be at least 15% and the use o greywater increased household incomes by 10%. More

than 1,000 systems have now been constructed or low-income amilies.

enListing farmers’ heLp in China

Although China’s Tarim Basin is Eurasia’s driest spot, agriculture thrives on oases watered

by snowmelt. But expanding agriculture and industrial development are leading to declining

water supplies and environmental degradation. Researchers have identifed a number o water

management innovations, many o which were adopted by the provincial government. They are

now working with armers to increase water availability, reduce risk, and improve livelihoods.

a bioLogiCaL approaCh to treating water

Overcoming the environmental and health hazards posed by wastewater and providing water

or gardens in poor neighbourhoods o Dakar, Senegal is the promise held by an aquatic

plant—water lettuce (pistia stratiotes)—which grows in treatment ponds. Communities are

involved in managing and evaluating the system, which could help Dakar address its watersupply problems while increasing ood supplies and incomes.

a CLeaner City and better heaLth

Waterborne and helminthic diseases are rampant in Kathmandu, Nepal, where all fve rivers

are seriously polluted. Among the causes are a lack o sanitary acilities and the use o rivers as

dumps or waste meat rom open air butcheries. Research has led to a new Animal Slaugh-

tering and Meat Inspection Act, and to collaborative remedial action by the city’s competing

social groups and castes.

enListing youth in the fight against poLLution

Honduran high school students are being trained to collect and analyze data on water re-

sources in the Tascalapa River. Wastewater and solid waste management is a chronic problem

in the country. Working with communities and local authorities, the project aims to increase

demand or improved environmental services and lead to the design o a wastewater and solid

waste management system.

anCient teChnoLogy, new hope

In the arid highlands o Yemen, researchers and armers have ound ways to rebuild and but-

tress ancient water-saving terraces that had allen into disrepair. As a result, men who had let

the area to seek jobs in the cities eagerly returned to arming, discovering that ood production

in the newly ertile felds was a proftable occupation.

—by Michelle Hibler

For more inormation: www.idrc.ca/water

8/6/2019 CK Water 15-18


“The case o Cochabamba is very par-ticular,” he continued. “When you initiate amovement, you’ve got to stick with it untilit’s been fnished. When you’ve destroyedyour enemy, the multinational companyin this case, it doesn’t mean your work isover. Ultimately, it depends on the people o Cochabamba, because now there is invest-ment.”

O course, Mamani understands the slowpace o change in Bolivia and the constraintso working in such an impoverished country.

The ministry was started rom scratchin January. It’s still fnding its eet and it’srun on a shoestring. With a US$800,000annual budget, it’s heavily dependent oninternational unding (the research that willunderlie several new water laws was undedby Canada’s International Development Re-search Centre). Its obligations are vast, romcoordinating national, regional and mu-nicipal water uses to managing the nation’s

water resources to resolving internationaldisputes. And then there’s the colossal chal-lenge o meeting basic needs.

By 2010, the government wants to extendclean water coverage to 78 per cent o thepopulation, and sanitation services to 60 percent. The price tag is US$528 million, 70

per cent o which is to come rom interna-tional aid. This will mean long, difcult ne-gotiations with donors who preer to fnancepublic-private partnerships, which Bolivianssimply will not accept. Donor preerencesmay change over time as research aroundthe world fnds more and more problemswith private participation in water delivery.

The country’s social movements want to

construct new models or public utilities,banishing the corruption and inefciency o the past and building into their structure ahearty amount o population participation.Oscar Olivera, a very humble man, has beenthe most visible spokesman o la Coordina-dora during the Water War and since. Hethinks the new utilities—including Sema-pa—should rest on our pillars: transparen-cy, popular participation, social justice andefciency. What this will look like in practiceremains to be seen.

What is clear is where the money must

go. Nearly everyone in Bolivia agrees nowthat the public utilities can—and must—beable to pay the cost o water delivery andtreatment with aordable consumer ees.What the consumers can’t aord to pay isthe cost o Bolivia’s inrastructure gap. I thecountry can indeed secure the unding that

will allow its public institutions to covergap, there is ample room or optimism.

For all its problems, Semapa has pufscal house in order while modestly imping and expanding its service. The knedge and willpower needed or a revoluin water delivery here are in place.

“People need to understand that thislong process,” Mamani insisted, “and th

needs the participation, frst, o Bolivian“But it also needs the support and papation o the international community.”

All the water people I spoke to are scious o their responsibility to the citiwho ought in the streets or a public wsystem. They don’t think the slow dripprogress made so ar are nearly enough

In a quiet, determined voice, Olivera to me, “This solidarity can’t be rustraBeore my lie cycle ends, I want Semto become the public utility the pedreamed o. It’s an obligation, and we

to succeed.”Ck

Daniel Aldana Cohen is editor of theupcoming collection Notes From CanaNew Activists, to be released in the sprof 2007

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