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¡Cochabamba! | Interview
Oscar Olivera, the leader of the Cochabamba Coordinadora in defense of water and life reflects on the lessons of struggles for water in Bolivia and talks of the challenges and priorities for the new Ministry of Water.
Why did you get involved in the struggle to defend water and to fight privatization in Cochabamba?
In the contract for the water concession with Aguas del Tunari and the Drinking Water Law they established measures that directly affected people in their daily lives. One of those was the dolarisation of water rates for people connected to the central network, another was the expropriation of alternative water systems that had been built by hundreds of cooperatives and thirdly you had the creation of a market in water that ended traditional uses and customs in water management and removed the rights of communities to their own water sources. What’s more these rules established a fixed rate of return for the multinational of 16% and even forced the population to ask permission from the Superintendent of Sanitation to collect rain water.
A resident connected to the central network saw his rates triple in one day. People who weren’t connected could not get a service because the multinational had a monopoly.
The communal water systems constructed as a result of everyone’s work were handed over to the company without any compensation. They did exactly the same by handing over the lakes and rivers belonging to small farming communities. The privatization and policies of the World Bank affected everyone without exception because no-one can live without water.
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