Hello read.cash readers did you know that twenty years ago the authorities in Bolivia decided to privatize water, the people stood up and stopped the destruction of their country. It was an epic chapter in the history of the country, where the united people expelled a powerful transnational corporation that privatized their water.
In September 1999, the government handed over the city's water supply, without any public consultation, to a consortium led by California engineering giant Bechtel Corporation. Shortly afterwards, Bechtel raised the price of water enormously, and in addition, the entire southern part of the city was left without access to water. This circumstance was used by many private entrepreneurs who started selling water from cisterns, and it was of very poor quality. People were also forbidden to collect rainwater. The privatization of basic human resources led to a popular uprising and an eruption of protest that reached a hotbed in just a few days.
As the government did not fulfill this request, the inhabitants of the city and surrounding places organized a referendum on their own, to which over 50,000 citizens responded. In a referendum, a majority of citizens (95 percent) voted against privatization. However, as the government continued to refuse to negotiate, the protests became radicalized and they are appearing in other parts as well. Numerous roads were blocked, there was a general strike in Cochabamba, and activists rotated in shifts in order to maintain the blockade. All this time, the community has been making sure that activists are supplied with food and drink. After police arrested several activists, protests further intensified, and large mobilizations of people took place in the villages to maintain the blockade. ready for an open confrontation with the police. At one point, police opened fire on protesters, and teenager Viktor Hugo Daza (17) was killed in the clash. He became a hero in the fight against privatization, and his dead body was carried by activists to the square. As activists continued the blockade, the government was forced to agree to the repeal of the law on the privatization of water supply and water sources, and Bechtel was forced to leave the country.
The water supply system in Cochabamba has again become a public good. This movement has inspired other movements around the world that defend water as a common good, and not as a product from which one can profit. After the water war, Bolivia experienced a wave of popular resistance against neoliberal politics.
I hope things like this don’t happen again.
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I heard that the water was already on the stock market. The idea is for people to buy bottled water.