The model of decentralized social-public water management may prove to be more viable than either the private or the state-centric model for countries like Bolivia, with major geographic barriers to centralized service provision, a weak state sector, and a strong culture of community participation. Still, regardless of the management model, the major challenge facing Bolivia’s water sector today is the need for significant resources to upgrade and expand the existing infrastructure and develop new water sources.
While the Morales government has made significant progress in this area, a great deal remains to be accomplished. Recently, the government announced that Bolivia will meet its overall Millennium Development Goal for access to safe drinking water three years ahead of schedule, with 88% overall coverage achieved in 2010. But potable water access rates in Bolivia’s rural and peri-urban zones (71%) lag far behind those for urban areas (96%), and are among the lowest in Latin America. And only 27% of Bolivians have adequate sanitation facilities—the second-worst record in the region, after Haiti.
Climate change and extreme weather events have added a new and urgent dimension to Bolivia’s water challenges, both urban and rural. In recent years, droughts have increasingly undermined the water systems and agricultural economies of rural communities, while displacing their populations to precarious urban zones where torrential rains and floods overwhelm existing water and sanitation infrastructure. Retreating tropical glaciers are diminishing freshwater resources not only for small highland communities, but for the urban populations of El Alto and La Paz, who rely on glacial melt as a major source of drinking water. Water levels in Lake Titicaca, which some 2.6 million people depend on, are reportedly at their lowest levels since 1949.1802 Chacaltaya ex-glacier. Credit: globalvoicesonline.org
The national development plan calls for a $700 million investment between 2010 and 2015 to upgrade Bolivia’s water and sanitation infrastructure, including climate change adaptations. Like its neoliberal predecessors, the Morales government continues to rely on foreign donors (principally the Inter-American Development Bank, the Venezuela-dominated Latin American Development Bank, Spain, Italy, and Japan) for as much as 80% of this funding. Most of the balance is expected to come from the departmental and municipal governments, whose revenues—derived principally from hydrocarbons royalties—have increased substantially under Morales. Water researcher Susan Spronk points out that only 1.5% of the national budget (from direct Treasury revenues) is dedicated to water and sanitation improvements, while 80% is allocated to mining, hydrocarbons, hydroelectricity, and transportation infrastructure.
https://nacla.org/blog/2013/6/5/water-wars-water-scarcity-bolivia%E2%80%99s-cautionary-tale
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