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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: bentway who wrote (271753)	8/28/2010 4:31:01 PM
From: Giordano Bruno	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Bechtel once owned the rain in Cochabamba, Bolivia Privatization of Water What seems to be a benign interest – water - has erupted into an economically, socially and politically destabilizing force for communities in both the third and first world. Bechtel has taken advantage of a push pull scenario facing the future of public infrastructure. Third world countries are pushed into privatizing their water systems by World Bank structural adjustment policies that view privatization as the answer to many of the financial woes of the third world. In the first world municipalities are pulled into water privatization as a way to dump responsibility of restructuring antiquated systems. The privatization of water systems inevitably results in increased prices for consumers forcing poor people to choose whether or not water takes precedence over food, clothing, or shelter. Privatizing water systems translates into a guarantee of steady income for corporations that secure a monopoly over the water system. Currently, Bechtel’s efforts to privatize water systems in San Francisco and Boliva have spawned major protests against the company. In February 2000, Bolivia’s third largest city, Cochabamba erupted into a battle over water. The public water system was sold off to Bechtel. Subsequently, the price of water in Cochabumba skyrocketed creating panic among Bolivians and forcing them onto the streets in protest. A 17 year old boy was killed, hundreds were injured and arrested as thousands protested for their basic right of access to affordable water. Although the citizen unrest was directed at Bechtel’s opportunistic venture, Bechtel framed their interest in Bolivia in a humanitarian context. "Currently more than 40% of the region’s citizens have no direct access to water resources. We were invited by the government to participate in a privatization program to develop long-term solutions to provide safe and affordable water and wastewater services" (5). To the contrary, a Bolivian protest leader claimed, "The blood spilled in Cochabamba carries the fingerprints of Bechtel" (6). Bechtel finally agreed to leave Bolivia, but only after the Bolivian government paid the corporation between $12 and $40 million in compensation. The case is currently in litigation in the Netherlands.