from the attempted privatization of a people’s water

The Tunari Mountain range has long been a source of water for people living in the surrounding land. In 1999, Aguas del Tunari, a multinational consortium, was granted a 40 year lease to privatize the water source. The following year, a grassroots mass uprising known as the Water Wars formed to fight against the privatization of the local water.

The community reversed the lease and the water system was kept in the hands of the public. In 2005, the Movement for Socialism won elections in Bolivia. While the political party has worked to bring meaningful improvements to the lives of the country’s Indigenous majority, the party’s grip on power ever since has led some to fear the return of water privatization efforts.

Benjamin Swift in Tunari Mountain Range, Cochabamba