WATER ABLAZE - Patagonia Sin Represas

The GTZ, in consultation with the Deputy Minister of Basic
Sanitation, endorsed one such privatisation deal in the towns
of Colcapiruha and Tiquipaya, which met with resistance from
indigenous farmers and municipal drinking water committees. In the
course of 2003, these protests were brutally quashed by the military
and the police. In Oscar Olivera’s opinion, the GTZ should be made
accountable for its role in the suppression.
“They have robbed us. They wish to sell us.
If we continue sleeping, our soul will be lost.”
Panchi Maldonado, a musician from La Paz, Bolivia, whose songs describe
the situation of the people protesting in the streets, using music as a form of
peaceful resistance
From the end of 2003 onwards, the GTZ sponsored the drafting of
a “National Basins Programme” together with other regulations and
water management guidelines. These were meant to govern, among
other things, basic sanitation, irrigation, water consumption, sewage,
water pollution and hydroelectric power. This procedure took place
behind closed doors, without the participation or the approval of
the farmers’ organisations and the indigenous communities who had
fought against water privatisation in the year 2000. The Law of the
Framework and Management of Water Resources and other new laws
allow the granting of franchises for natural water resources, thereby
forcing communities to hand over sources of drinking water which
they have been using for generations.
In April 2004, the GTZ supported the foundation of the publicprivate
partnerships Bustillo and Manchaco, to name just two, but
several more are in the making. In both the above-mentioned cases,
the concession zones involved have large indigenous communities,
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