ABSTRACT
In early 2000, the city of Cochabamba, Bolivia, was the scene of a pitched battle known as the Water War. Aguas del Tunari Company, a Bolivian corporation linked to the multinational consortium Bechtel, won water development and distribution rights in Cochabamba through a shady process, and then boosted city water rates, supposedly to help finance improved services. The protest that followed was not just an urban consumer revolt or an isolated event. Irrigators in the region who saw their rights to water threatened were also involved and the Water War ultimately resulted in a substantial amendment to the Drinking Water and Sanitary Sewerage Law, which had been enacted a few months before. Multilateral agencies had promoted the law to privatize water supply in large cities and turn water into a commodity. The opposition considered water to be a fundamental right and a public good. The Cochabamba Water War was the most heated example of the Bolivian people's broad-based opposition to the neoliberal model, and was considered the first victory after a decade and a half of defeats (Assies, 2001).
