News 13 of 13

(IDRC photo: Michelle Hibler)

After 32 failed attempts to reach consensus on water legislation and a deadly social conflict over water rights, IDRC-supported researchers in Bolivia have helped their country develop a water law that everyone could agree on.  

“Our country cannot afford the luxury of having legal norms that are repealed or abolished days or months after being approved.” 

— Juan Carlos Alurralde, Comisión para la Gestión Integral del Agua en Bolivia

The Development Challenge: Turn conflict into collaboration for policy-making

Water has always been a controversial issue in Bolivia. Water is a scarce commodity in much of the Andean country — and in other regions where there is ample rainfall, access to water is hotly contested. It has been extremely difficult to find agreement on how the resource should be regulated and who should have legal rights to it. The Government of Bolivia has made 32 attempts to achieve consensus on a comprehensive new water law  — one that would update a law with colonial roots that has been on the books since 1906. None were accepted.

In 1998, the issue of water rights came to a boiling point when the Bolivian government proposed legislation that allowed for the privatization of water and provided a private, foreign-owned company, Aguas del Tunari, with a concession to sell water in Cochabamba. For the first time in recent Bolivian history, social groups mobilized in protest. By 2000, the country was paralyzed by blockades; lives were lostin riots; the government was destabilized and facing political crisis. Bolivia’s “Water War” hit the front pages of newspapers worldwide. The government was forced to break the contract with Aguas del Tunari and to promise more open debate on the issues.Aspecial council was created, the Consejo Interinstitucional del Agua (CONIAG), that was charged with drafting a water management law based on public consultation. This was an unusual gesture: Bolivia had rarely sought public input into policy-making.

For Bolivian water engineer Juan Carlos Alurralde (known as Oso Andino), the creation of CONIAG represented a unique opportunity to find a “made in Boliva” approach to water management. Alurralde is a researcher with a nongovernmental organization (NGO) that had been focusing on water issues, the Comisión para la Gestión Integral del Agua en Bolivia (CGIAB). Experienced in working with both social groups and the Bolivian government, he was convinced that dialogue based on solid research could help point to a fair and efficient model for water management that everyone could accept. However, mistrust was riding extremely high between social groups and the government; no one was underestimating the challenges of finding a path to mutual agreement.

The Idea: Combine grassroots dialogue with high-tech science  

By using a state-of-the-art mathematical model, researchers could simulate how effective various approaches to allocating water rights would be — information critical todeveloping a new water law. However, researchers also understood that while the government had experts who could evaluate the research, social groups did not. If social groups did not trust the research, there was a risk that they would reject the findings. So, the researchers decided to include social groups that had protested the water law in the research process — by inviting them to participate in the research design, asking them to help gather data, and regularly communicating and explaining theirfindings. In effect, the researchers would be using both technical and social science in their approach. The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) supported CGIAB’s research project, which ran from 2002 to 2005, with a  $270,000 grant.

The Research: Analyze two hotly debated approaches

Researchers used a water simulation model developed by the Danish Hydraulic Institute to build a computerized replica of Bolivian water systems, taking into account seasonal changes. They fed the model with existing cartographical information and data on  water, precipitation, and climate. A Geographic Information System (GIS) was used to map water rights. A database of existing customary (or traditional) water rights was also developed through lot-by-lot field work and surveys. Members of irrigators’ groups and farmers were involved in collecting this data. Information was used to project which approach to water management would be most efficient: the one favoured by the government or the one Indigenous communities believed would be best.

On the Ground: Clarifying the debate

Research issues, methods, and results were conveyed to a broad range of social actors, including researchers, members of grassroots social movements and NGOs, government technicians, academics, andsenior government officials.

Researchers simulated two scenarios: granting concessions by unit of volume per time (litres per second) for specific uses and managing water according to the traditional uses and customs currently in place, based on collective ownership of water for multiple uses. Researchers also estimated how much water was lost, for example through filtration and leaks.

Research revealed that the approach favoured by the government (volume per time) would lead to a more inefficient use of water and cause larger differences in water availability between communities, actually resulting in water deficits in many cases.

The Impact: Water rights are defined in law

On 8 October 2004, the Governmentof Bolivia promulgated la Ley numero 2878, de Promoción y Apoyo al Sector Riego. The law takes into account CGIAB’s research by recognizing  traditional water rights and uses, and guarantees rights to water for irrigation for Indigenousand farming communities. It has gained widespread acceptance. By regulating rights for one of the major uses of water in Bolivia, the approval of Law 2878 is a huge stride toward formulating  a general water law. It is also one of the first times thatevidence-based research has been used as the basis for legislation in Bolivia. Moreover, the passing of the law also illustrates that water policy need not be an issue that necessarily leads to conflict.

New Challenges: Extend the approach

Researchers need to examine if the approach developed by CGIAB can be extended to solve other conflicts over water or used in other countries.  In addition, Law 2878 provides for a new authority in charge of granting water rights.CGIAB is investigating how the tools developed in the research project could be adapted so that the water authority could take a research-based approach to granting water rights. IDRC is supporting CGIAB’s work in a second phase of research.

Links:

La Comisión para la Gestión Integral del Agua en Bolivia (CGIAB): http://www.aguabolivia.org

Informe Científico: Regulación de Derechos de Agua en Bolivia

IDRC y la investigación de la política del agua en Bolivia. Proyecto Derechos de Agua (CGIAB)

2005-08

News 13 of 13