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Community Building Meeting II |
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Community Building Meeting II |
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WATER
Oscar Olivera is a union leader from Cochabamba where he gained international prominence in a 1999 struggle to reverse the privatization of local water resources. A reserved and humble man, Oscar entered the workforce as a machine operator at age 16 and worked his way into the leadership of his union over the following 22 years. He is currently the Executive Secretary of the Cochabamba Federation of Factory Workers, an organization that includes over 50 unions and 6,000 workers among its members, and the Coordinator of the Coalition in Defense of Water and Life. Oscar is also a Commissioner of the Commission on Globalization. For his leadership in the Cochabamba water issue, Oscar received the 2001 Goldman Environmental Prize, the world's largest award honoring environmental activists. He also received, in October 2000, the annual Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award on behalf of the people of Cochabamba At the current rate of consumption, global water usage is doubling every 20 years, over twice the rate of population growth. World leaders are beginning to realize that this natural resource, traditionally regarded as a sacred right for everyone, is extremely finite, and experts predict that by the year 2025 two-thirds of the world's population will be living in conditions without access to suitable drinking water. Maude Barlow of the Blue Planet Project states the problem succinctly, "the story of the destruction of the world's remaining freshwater sources is one of the most pressing of our time; there is simply no way to overstate the nature of this crisis." In addition, this crisis is leading some world leaders, such as former World Bank Vice President, Ismail Seragelden, to conclude that future regional conflicts around the world will primarily be framed around possession of water resources, which will in turn lead to new ethnic, national and tribal wars. The competition over possession of clean water sources has, in recent years, become evident in the privatization policies required by the IMF and World Bank in developing countries. This utility restructuring, as a part of lending conditions, promotes a slow but steady shift of water ownership from the public to private sector. Given the imbalance of political and financial strength between developed and developing nations, such water privatization policies usually transfer the water resources into the control of western multinational corporations. The abuse of this water privatization policy in Cochabamba, Bolivia, led to a popular uprising in 1999 by a broad-based coalition of peasants, farmers and workers, and neighborhood associations who joined with unions, environmental, youth, and civic groups to fight an international consortium led by the Bechtel Corporation. This story is an example of how civic leadership emerges spontaneously in response to some of the inequities of multinational corporate globalization and the multilateral institutional lending policies that provide corporate access to the developing world. It also highlights the challenges that have emerged in the aftermath of a successful de-privatization of the local water system by organized civil society action. This essential resource, now partially in the control of Cochabamba community leaders, can only be responsibly managed with the assistance of outside advisors who can provide the expertise required. This story suggests the need for reform of policies that blindly privatize resources for capital gain without appropriate consideration of its impact on local communities. These are two of the challenges currently under review by the Commission on Globalization. |
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