Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Contesting and Co-Producing the Right to Water in Peri-Urban Cochabamba

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Urban Water Trajectories

Part of the book series: Future City ((FUCI,volume 6))

Abstract

The Bolivian government played a key role in developing and presenting the Human Right to Water to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). However, nationally water policies and institutions designed to realise the right to water have struggled to engage with a highly fragmented and informal water sector. 46 % of the residents in the city of Cochabamba rely on informal water providers. There are around 600 community water providers across the municipality, many of which experience serious practical and institutional challenges. Meanwhile, the poorest households and communities in the city continue to rely on expensive vendors. Drawing on research undertaken between 2010 and 2015, this chapter explores how community water providers in Cochabamba engaged with reforms around the right to water, and have sought to engage with the state and to develop co-production partnerships as a means of improving water services to low-income urban neighbourhoods.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Local name for low income and informal peri-urban region to the south of Cochabamba.

  2. 2.

    The Misicuni Multipurpose Project is a dam that is under construction to the North West of Cochabamba designed to provide drinking water and irrigation to the city and surrounding areas. The project, which was conceptualised in 1952, has been underway in various forms since 1987. The dam was due to be completed in 2014 but has been subject to a series of contentious financial and contractual delays.

  3. 3.

    Pseudonym.

  4. 4.

    Barrio elder, Villa 15 de Febrero, 2 May 2010.

  5. 5.

    SENASBA official, La Paz, 16 November, 2010.

  6. 6.

    Law 2066 was established to protect water systems and rights in 1999.

  7. 7.

    Senior Agua Sustentable employee, Cochabamba, 7 November, 2010.

  8. 8.

    Cumbre por el agua y el Saneamiento Básico, Cochabamba, 25 and 26 June, 2010.

  9. 9.

    CWP Participant workshop on the right to water, Cumbre por el agua y el Saneamiento Básico, Cochabamba, 25 and 26 June, Cochabamba, 26 June, 2010.

  10. 10.

    Oscar Olivera, Red Vida Conference Mexico City, 15 October, 2012.

  11. 11.

    Interview with CEVI employee on 9 October, 2011.

  12. 12.

    Pseudonym for a CWP in district eight where the author’s doctoral research was undertaken.

  13. 13.

    Pseudonym.

  14. 14.

    Villa 15 de Febrero is a pseudonym.

  15. 15.

    Derogatory term for the elites.

  16. 16.

    Interview with resident of Villa 15 de Febrero, 1 August, 2010.

References

  • Achi A, Kirchheimer R (2006) Innovar para alcanzar el derecho humano al agua en la Zona Sur de Cochabamba. La experiencia de apoyo a los comités de agua potable de la Fundacion Pro Habitat. In: Quiroz F, Faysse N, Ampuero R (eds) Experiencias de fortalecimiento a Comites de Agua Potable Comunitarios en Bolivia y Colombia: Centro AGUA-UMSS, Cochabamba

    Google Scholar 

  • Allen A (2012) Water provision for and by the peri-urban poor: public-community partnerships or citizens co-production? In: Vojnovic I (ed) Sustainability: a global urban context. Michigan State University Press, East Lansing, pp 309–340

    Google Scholar 

  • Allen A, Walnycki A, von Bertrab E (2015) The co-production of water justice in Latin American cities. In: Allen A, Griffin L, Johnson C (eds) (forthcoming) Just urban futures: environmental justice and resilience in the Urban Global South. Palgrave McMillan, London

    Google Scholar 

  • ASICASUDD-EPSAS (2012) PROYECTO PASAAS. http://www.asicasuddepsas.org/contenidos/leer/25-05-2011-PROYECTO-PASAAS. Accessed 5 June 2011

  • Campanini O (2007) Las Propuestas del Agua en la Asamblea Constituyente. Agua Sustentable, La Paz

    Google Scholar 

  • Campanini O, Rios F, Mamani F (2008) Asamblea Constituyente: Articulos aprobados y complementados en la Comision de Recursos Hidricos y Energia, parra agua en la asamblea constituyente bolivia. Agua Sustentable, La Paz

    Google Scholar 

  • CGIAB (2010) El Agua en el Proceso de Reforma Legislativa e Institucional: Entre el Derecho Humano y el Bien Común. CGIAB, Cochabamba

    Google Scholar 

  • Cielo C, Céspedes R (2008) Participaciones periurbanas. Del control social a los movimientos sociales. Plural editores, La Paz

    Google Scholar 

  • Crespo C (2003) Water privatization policies and conflict in Bolivia: the water war in Cochabamba (1999–2000). Oxford Brooks University, PhD, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Crespo C (2010) El Derecho Humano en La Practica: La Politica del Agua y los RRNN de gobierno Evo Morales. CESU – UMSS Ponencia al Congreso de Sociologia. CESU – UMSS, Cochabamba

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans P (1997) State-society synergy: government and social capital in development. Institute for International Studies, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghielmi G, Mondaca G, Lujan M (2008) Diagnostico sobre el nivel de contaminación de acuíferos en el Distrito 9 del Municipio del Cercado en la ciudad de Cochabamba y propuesta para su protección y control. Acta Nova 4(1):51–86

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldstein DM (2004) The spectacular city: violence and performance in urban Bolivia. Duke University Press Books, Durham

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Grandiddyer A (2006) La lucha por el agua en Cochabamba. Manifiesto de los hombres y mujeres de la zona sur, Cochabamba, Marzo de 2006. Movimiento indígena en América Latina: resistencia y proyecto alternativo, vol II. Gutiérrez R, Escárzaga R. pp 68–74

    Google Scholar 

  • Joshi A, Moore M (2004) Institutionalized co-production: unorthodox public service delivery in challenging environments. J Dev Stud 40(4):31–49

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kohl B, Farthing L, Muruchi F (2011) From the mines to the streets. University of Texas Press, Austin

    Google Scholar 

  • Lavrilleux, Y and Compere, P (2006) Descripción de sistemas: identificación de problemas, necesidades y demandas. Sistemas independientes de agua potable del area metropolitana de Cochambamba. Instituto Nacional Agronómico de Paris– Grignon y Centro Andino para la Gestión y el Uso del Agua, UMSS, Cochabamba

    Google Scholar 

  • Los Tiempos (2015) Conmemoran 15 años de la Guerra del Agua. Los Tiempos, Cochabamba

    Google Scholar 

  • Mamani MEF (2006) FRUTCAS en defensa del oro azul. No a la comercializacion y exportacion de las aguas subterraneas y superficiales de la region del Altiplano Sud. Fundacion Solon y Agua Sustentable, La Paz

    Google Scholar 

  • Marshall F, Waldman L, MacGregor H, Mehta L, Randhawa P (2009) On the edge of sustainability: perspectives on peri-urban dynamics. Peri-urban Working Paper 1. Steps Centre, Sussex University

    Google Scholar 

  • McGranahan G (2013) Community-driven sanitation improvement in deprived urban neighbourhoods: meeting the challenges of local collective action, co-production, affordability and a trans-sectoral approach. SHARE, London

    Google Scholar 

  • MMAYA (2012) Loan proposal for Inter-American Development Bank: reform program for the water and sanitation and water resources sectors in Bolivia, La Paz

    Google Scholar 

  • MMAYA (2013) Plan Maestro Mteropolitano de Agua Potable y Saneamiento del Aera Metropolitano de Cochabamba. Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Agua, Bolivia

    Google Scholar 

  • Ostrom E (1996) Crossing the great divide: coproduction, synergy, and development. World Dev 24(6):1073–1087

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Perreault T (2008) Customs and contradictions: rural water governance and the politics of Usos y Costumbres in Bolivia’s irrigators’ movement. Ann Assoc Am Geogr 98(4):834–854

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schultz J, Draper M (2008) Dignity and defiance: stories from Bolivia’s challenge to globalization. University of California Press, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  • SEMAPA (2015) www.semapa.com

  • Spronk S, Webber JR (2007) Struggles against accumulation by dispossession in Bolivia. Lat Am Perspect 34(2):31–47

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Torrico M, Walnycki A (2015) Las Chompas en el poder? El mito de la participación en los barrios pobres de Cochabamba. Bolivia Medio Ambiente y Urbanización 82(1):81–116

    Google Scholar 

  • UNGA (2010) The human right to water and sanitation. United Nations, Geneva

    Google Scholar 

  • Walnycki A (2013) Rights on the edge: the right to water and the peri-urban drinking water committees of Cochabamba. Sussex University, PhD thesis

    Google Scholar 

  • Zegada A, Heredia G, Bustamante R, Walnycki A (2015) Translocal learning for water justice: peri-urban pathways in India, Tanziania and Bolivia; Water Justice City Profile: Cochabamba. Development Planning Unit, UCL, DPU-UCL (London)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), London, UK

    Anna Walnycki

Authors
  1. Anna Walnycki
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anna Walnycki .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College London (UCL), London, United Kingdom

    Sarah Bell

  2. The Bartlett Development Planning Unit, University College London (UCL), London, United Kingdom

    Adriana Allen

  3. The Bartlett Development Planning Unit, University College London (UCL), London, United Kingdom

    Pascale Hofmann

  4. The Bartlett School of Planning, University College London (UCL), London, United Kingdom

    Tse-Hui Teh

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Walnycki, A. (2017). Contesting and Co-Producing the Right to Water in Peri-Urban Cochabamba. In: Bell, S., Allen, A., Hofmann, P., Teh, TH. (eds) Urban Water Trajectories. Future City, vol 6. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42686-0_9

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42686-0_9

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-42684-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-42686-0

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation