Water Governance in Bolivia: Cochabamba since the Water War

by Nasya Sara Razavi

Overview

This book examines water remunicipalization in Cochabamba since the Water War, helping to move debates on water services beyond the paralyzing binary of public versus private with a focus on the contested terrain of community engagement around water services.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367770174
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	01/29/2024
Series:	Routledge Focus on Environment and Sustainability
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	5.44(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Nasya Sara Razavi received her PhD in Human Geography at Queen's University, Canada. Her research lies at the intersection of urban transformations and inequalities in peri-urban Bolivia, as changing infrastructure and severe water shortages shape public participation, gendered insecurities, and everyday practices. She is currently Research Associate at the City Institute at York University, Canada, and lead researcher for the Cochabamba team on the feminist comparative urban research project GenUrb (Urbanization, Gender, and the Global South: A Transformative Knowledge Network).

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Remunicipalization 2. Protracted water crisis in the garden city 3. What is social control? A typology of public participation 4. "Semapa es de los Cochabambinos": Participation and social control in the Cochabamba water sector 5. Participatory mechanisms beyond Semapa 6. Conclusion: Building a common path

Editorial Reviews

"Much has been written about the so-called water war that shook the city of Cochabamba in April, 2000. In this carefully researched book, Nasya Razavi asks why, two decades on, the promise of the iconic anti-privatization protests remains unfulfilled. Razavi’s insightful analysis begins where the protests left off: the messy, indeterminate process of ‘remunicipalizing’ the city’s water service. This is a nuanced and detailed examination of urban water governance that focuses on how participatory governance works – or doesn’t – in practice. This book is a must read for anyone who cares about the right to water and how to make it a reality." - Tom Perreault, DellPlain Professor of Latin American Geography, Syracuse University, U.S.A.

"When the Water Wars of Bolivia subsided 20 years ago much of the world'stopped watching, but internal struggles for equitable public water services continued. Two decades on, however, water remains highly stratified along class, racial and gendered lines. With a focus on Cochabamba, Razavi convincingly demonstrates how much of this outcome is linked to weak mechanisms of public involvement in decision making, traced in part to fundamental divides among key actors over the very meaning of participation. Employing a novel conceptual framework, Razavi throws critical but sympathetic light on the importance of meaningful civic engagement and how the demand for change continues to animate water movements in the country". - David A McDonald, Professor of Global Development Studies, Queen’s University, Canada

From the Publisher