The water issue in Bolivia, what is it about -really?
I recently received information about my new sponsored child in Santa Cruz area in Bolivia. The information was provided by Plan-international and in the letter that came in the same envelope as the picture of the eleven year old girl I also got some more information about the so called "water issue". Evo Morales has in our media been described as a leader of the socialist party MAS. Many editors in our corner of the world have mainy concentrated ther articles about the left winds that are blowing over these parts of Latin America, and how the relationship with USA will be affected by such a left turn. Some have also adressed the fact that Evo Morales has been a coca-farmer at some point in his life and have made attempt at turning the attention to the issue of drug-trafficing between Latina America and the USA.
In the background is however a much broades scope of issues concerning mainly the Bolivians themselves.
The nationalization of water supplies has been briefly described and used as the key example of how the new government now is heading in a direction that is perhaps not so much appreciated in the USA. The vision is about Bolivia as a kind of new communist stronghold, comparable to Cuba or with a even more suppressive political climate if the socialists were to become the only ruling party in the country.
I think in focusing on the general left-right colour-scheme-thinking there is a serious risk of totally missing the point here.
According to Plan-International the water issue is about providing indigenous people, the farmers or the campesinors with fresh drinking-water. A matter vital to childrens health among other things. As the situation is right now for many people living in rural areas clean water is simply hard to come by and diseases such as cholera, intestinal parasites, acute respiratory diseases and diarrhoa, can easily spread.
" More than 83% are below the poverty-line and therefore can not satisfy their basic needs. The most serious problem in this area (Santa Cruz) is the lack of portable drinking water. In these communities, water is generally collected from rivers and wells, it is not boiled, and thus it is not drinkable. Water-borne diseases are abundant. Semi-urban area communities of Conception, San Javier and San Ramon are connected to main water system, which is bad and does not reach all houses. The major town and all communities lack appropriate sewage and solid waste processing" (The Plan-International, support a child, welcome letter)
It is actually quite strange to think that a company providing the people with such vital services as water supply and sewage-systems would NOT be a national one, owned by the people or the government of that particular country.
In Finland there are many types of corporations and companies run by the state, "nationalized" in other words in the sense that there are not mainly foreign stock-holders that control these companies, but instead a board posed directly under the government. The finnish system also allow for private ownership of course. In the case of Bolivia it is clear that the government will be in need for funding in order to both control and develop the water supply system. Weather these fundings are to come from abroad or from tax-payers is maybe not totally clear att this point. If it is to come from abroad, it is still vital that the control and development is maintained in the hands of the people and that everybody -equally, despite incomes or abilities to pay for the water, benefit from a renewed water-supply system.
posted by "Amira" @ 6:02 AM
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