136-433: [REDACTED] Coordinadora in Defense of Water and Life [REDACTED] Bolivian government The Cochabamba Water War , also known as the Bolivian Water War , was a series of protests that took place in Cochabamba , Bolivia 's fourth largest city, between December 1999 and April 2000 in response to the privatization of the city's municipal water supply company SEMAPA. The wave of demonstrations and police violence
272-477: A $ 2.5 billion, 40-year concession "to provide water and sanitation services to the residents of Cochabamba, as well as generate electricity and irrigation for agriculture." Within the terms of the contract the consortium was guaranteed a minimum 15% annual return on its investment, which was to be annually adjusted to the United States' consumer price index . The implementation of Aguas del Tunari's program
408-642: A $ 40 million lawsuit in the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes , an appellate body of the World Bank , against the Bolivian government, "claiming compensation for lost profits under a bilateral investment treaty." On the day following Víctor Hugo Daza's funeral, Óscar Olivera climbed to his union office's balcony and proclaimed victory to the exhausted crowd. The demonstrators declared that they would not relent until Law 2029
544-674: A 2002 publication the World Bank acknowledges that one of its loans, the "Major Cities Water and Sewerage Rehabilitation Project", included a condition to privatize the La Paz and Cochabamba water utilities. The privatization was required to allow a two-year extension of the project that was due to close in 1995. The World Bank project that began in 1990 had covered three cities, leading to sharply diverging outcomes: Access increased and service quality improved in Santa Cruz de la Sierra where
680-493: A Southern Europe hydropower race. In Italy's Po Valley , the main 20th century transition was not the creation of hydropower but the transition from mechanical to electrical hydropower. 12,000 watermills churned in the Po watershed in the 1890s, but the first commercial hydroelectric plant, completed in 1898, signaled the end of the mechanical reign. These new large plants moved power away from rural mountainous areas to urban centers in
816-443: A billion tonnes of CO2 greenhouse gas a year. This occurs when organic matters accumulate at the bottom of the reservoir because of the deoxygenation of water which triggers anaerobic digestion . People who live near a hydro plant site are displaced during construction or when reservoir banks become unstable. Another potential disadvantage is cultural or religious sites may block construction. A watermill or water mill
952-788: A community coalition, erupted in January, February, and April 2000, culminating in tens of thousands marching downtown and battling police. One civilian was killed. On 10 April 2000, the national government reached an agreement with the Coordinadora to reverse the privatization. A complaint filed by foreign investors was resolved by agreement in February 2001. The restoration of civilian rule to Bolivia in 1982 ended decades of military dictatorships , but did not bring economic stability. In 1985, with hyperinflation at an annual rate of 25 thousand percent, few foreign investors would do business in
1088-448: A concord with the government guarantee the removal of Aguas del Tunari and turning Cochabamba's water works over to La Coordinadora . Detained demonstrators were to be released and Law 2029 repealed. The Banzer government then told Aguas del Tunari that by leaving Cochabamba they had "abandoned" the concession and declared the $ 200 million contract revoked. The company, insisting that it had not left voluntarily but been forced out, filed
1224-456: A conspiracy financed by cocaine trafficking looking for pretexts to carry out subversive activities. It is impossible for so many farmers to spontaneously move on their own." MacLean said President Hugo Banzer was worried because "political groups and traffickers are instigating farmers to confront the army." Felix Santos, a leader of the farmers rejected such claims, saying "We are protesting because of higher gasoline and transportation prices and
1360-410: A court. With the roads cut off and fearing a repeat of past uprisings, President Banzer on 8 April 2000 declared a "state of siege". Banzer said, "We see it as our obligation, in the common best interest, to decree a state of emergency to protect law and order." Information Minister Ronald MacLean Abaroa described the rationale for the decree, saying "We find ourselves with a country with access roads to
1496-433: A device to serve wine, and five devices to lift water from rivers or pools, where three of them are animal-powered and one can be powered by animal or water. Moreover, they included an endless belt with jugs attached, a cow-powered shadoof (a crane-like irrigation tool), and a reciprocating device with hinged valves. In the 19th century, French engineer Benoît Fourneyron developed the first hydropower turbine. This device
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#17327763638181632-435: A distance. A hydropower resource can be evaluated by its available power . Power is a function of the hydraulic head and volumetric flow rate . The head is the energy per unit weight (or unit mass) of water. The static head is proportional to the difference in height through which the water falls. Dynamic head is related to the velocity of moving water. Each unit of water can do an amount of work equal to its weight times
1768-457: A federation of peasant farmers who relied on irrigation, and a confederation of factory workers' unions led by Oscar Olivera . Together these groups formed Coördinator for the Defense of Water and Life , or La Coordinadora which became the core of the opposition to the policy. Law 2029 was one of the primary points of disagreement between protestors and the government. The initial intent of
1904-488: A group of community leaders running the restored state utility company SEMAPA. As late as 2005, half of the 600,000 people of Cochabamba remained without water and those with it only received intermittent service (some as little as three hours a day). Oscar Olivera the leading figure in the protests admitted, "I would have to say we were not ready to build new alternatives." SEMAPA managers say they are still forced to deal with graft and inefficiencies, but that its biggest problem
2040-671: A higher proportion of women than that of the population. The Bolivian Civil War between the Conservatives and the Liberals ended in 1899 with the latter's victory; a liberal era began that lasted until 1920. A system of public education developed, accompanied by moderate anticlericalism: Catholicism lost its status as the only religion recognized by the State in 1906 and civil marriage was adopted in 1911. Bolivian liberalism, however, clearly lost its progressive character to coexist with
2176-691: A jungle prison in San Joaquin, a remote town in the Amazon rainforest on the border with Brazil. The demonstrations spread quickly to other areas including La Paz, Oruro, and Potosí as well as rural areas. The protesters also expanded their demands calling on the government to resolve unemployment and other economic problems. Soon demonstrators had most of the major highways in Bolivia barricaded. The protest even inspired officers in four La Paz police units to refuse to leave their barracks or obey superiors until
2312-477: A law that will charge us for the use of water." Teachers of state schools in rural areas went on strike calling for salary increases (at the time they made $ 1,000 a year). In the capital city of La Paz students began to fight with police. Demonstrators put up roadblocks of stones, bricks and barrels near Achacachi and Batallas, and violence broke out there as well (one army officer and two farmers were killed and dozens injured). Soldiers and police soon cleared most of
2448-427: A low-carbon means for economic development . Since ancient times, hydropower from watermills has been used as a renewable energy source for irrigation and the operation of mechanical devices, such as gristmills , sawmills , textile mills, trip hammers , dock cranes , domestic lifts , and ore mills . A trompe , which produces compressed air from falling water, is sometimes used to power other machinery at
2584-464: A microturbine in a cylindrical housing. Electricity generated by that turbine is used to charge 12-volt batteries." The term rain power has also been applied to hydropower systems which include the process of capturing the rain. Evidence suggests that the fundamentals of hydropower date to ancient Greek civilization . Other evidence indicates that the waterwheel independently emerged in China around
2720-462: A more dependable source of power by smoothing seasonal changes in water flow. However, reservoirs have a significant environmental impact , as does alteration of naturally occurring streamflow. Dam design must account for the worst-case, "probable maximum flood" that can be expected at the site; a spillway is often included to route flood flows around the dam. A computer model of the hydraulic basin and rainfall and snowfall records are used to predict
2856-490: A mutual need for hydropower could lead to cooperation between otherwise adversarial nations. Hydropower technology and attitude began to shift in the second half of the 20th century. While countries had largely abandoned their small hydropower systems by the 1930s, the smaller hydropower plants began to make a comeback in the 1970s, boosted by government subsidies and a push for more independent energy producers. Some politicians who once advocated for large hydropower projects in
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#17327763638182992-535: A remote sensor." Villazon suggested a better application would be to collect the water from fallen rain and use it to drive a turbine, with an estimated energy generation of 3 kWh of energy per year for a 185 m roof. A microturbine-based system created by three students from the Technological University of Mexico has been used to generate electricity. The Pluvia system "uses the stream of rainwater runoff from houses' rooftop rain gutters to spin
3128-402: A significant portion of national revenues to municipalities for discretionary use, has enabled previously neglected communities to make striking improvements in their facilities and services. The governing Movement for Socialism ( Movimiento al Socialismo , MAS) is a Left-wing, Socialist political party led by Evo Morales , founded in 1997. It has governed the country since 2006, following
3264-586: A successful cooperative provided services, which enjoyed, according to the World Bank, "the reputation as one of the best-managed utilities in Latin America." However, results were mixed in La Paz and poor in Cochabamba. In the latter, access to piped water had actually decreased from 70% to 60%, water losses had remained high at 40% and water supply had remained unreliable at about four hours a day despite
3400-684: A tool to interfere in the economic development of African countries, such as the World Bank with the Kariba and Akosombo Dams , and the Soviet Union with the Aswan Dam . The Nile River especially has borne the consequences of countries both along the Nile and distant foreign actors using the river to expand their economic power or national force. After the British occupation of Egypt in 1882,
3536-485: A turbine with 90% efficiency. He applied scientific principles and testing methods to the problem of turbine design. His mathematical and graphical calculation methods allowed the confident design of high-efficiency turbines to exactly match a site's specific flow conditions. The Francis reaction turbine is still in use. In the 1870s, deriving from uses in the California mining industry, Lester Allan Pelton developed
3672-605: A wage dispute was settled. The Bolivian Constitution allows the President (with the support of his Cabinet) to declare a 90-day state of siege in one or more districts of the nation as an emergency measure to maintain public order in "cases of serious danger resulting from an internal civil disturbance". Any extension beyond 90 days must be approved of by the Congress. Anyone arrested at this time must be released after 90 days unless criminal charges are brought against them before
3808-480: Is a lack of money (it can not raise rates, and after Aguas del Tunari was forced out, other international companies are unwilling to give them more loans). Luis Camargo, SEMAPA's operations manager in an interview with The New York Times said they were forced to continue using a water-filtration system that is split between "an obsolete series of 80-year-old tanks and a 29-year-old section that uses gravity to move mountain water from one tank to another." He stated that
3944-535: Is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding) , rolling , or hammering . Such processes are needed in the production of many material goods, including flour , lumber , paper , textiles , and many metal products. These watermills may comprise gristmills , sawmills , paper mills , textile mills , hammermills , trip hammering mills, rolling mills , and wire drawing mills. One major way to classify watermills
4080-423: Is an attractive alternative to fossil fuels as it does not directly produce carbon dioxide or other atmospheric pollutants and it provides a relatively consistent source of power. Nonetheless, it has economic, sociological, and environmental downsides and requires a sufficiently energetic source of water, such as a river or elevated lake . International institutions such as the World Bank view hydropower as
4216-501: Is available on demand to be used to generate electricity by passing through channels that connect the dam to the reservoir. The water spins a turbine, which is connected to the generator that produces electricity. The other type is called a run-of-river plant. In this case, a barrage is built to control the flow of water, absent a reservoir . The run-of river power plant needs continuous water flow and therefore has less ability to provide power on demand. The kinetic energy of flowing water
Cochabamba Water War - Misplaced Pages Continue
4352-491: Is available only four hours a day and no new households have been connected to the supply network." Franz Taquichiri, a veteran of the Water War and an SEMAPA director elected by the community, said "I don't think you'll find people in Cochabamba who will say they're happy with service. No one will be happy unless they get service 24 hours a day." Another Cochabamba resident and activist during the unrest summed up her opinion of
4488-400: Is by an essential trait about their location: tide mills use the movement of the tide; ship mills are water mills onboard (and constituting) a ship. A plentiful head of water can be made to generate compressed air directly without moving parts. In these designs, a falling column of water is deliberately mixed with air bubbles generated through turbulence or a venturi pressure reducer at
4624-445: Is by using hybrid solar panels called "all-weather solar panels" that can generate electricity from both the sun and the rain. According to zoologist and science and technology educator, Luis Villazon, "A 2008 French study estimated that you could use piezoelectric devices, which generate power when they move, to extract 12 milliwatts from a raindrop. Over a year, this would amount to less than 0.001kWh per square metre – enough to power
4760-420: Is by wheel orientation (vertical or horizontal), one powered by a vertical waterwheel through a gear mechanism, and the other equipped with a horizontal waterwheel without such a mechanism. The former type can be further subdivided, depending on where the water hits the wheel paddles, into undershot, overshot, breastshot and pitchback (backshot or reverse shot) waterwheel mills. Another way to classify water mills
4896-439: Is lost from erosion. Furthermore, studies found that the construction of dams and reservoirs can result in habitat loss for some aquatic species. Large and deep dam and reservoir plants cover large areas of land which causes greenhouse gas emissions from underwater rotting vegetation. Furthermore, although at lower levels than other renewable energy sources, it was found that hydropower produces methane equivalent to almost
5032-403: Is the decreased efficiency of electricity generation because the process depends on the speed of the seasonal river flow. This means that the rainy season increases electricity generation compared to the dry season. The size of hydroelectric plants can vary from small plants called micro hydro , to large plants that supply power to a whole country. As of 2019, the five largest power stations in
5168-423: Is the main source of energy. Both designs have limitations. For example, dam construction can result in discomfort to nearby residents. The dam and reservoirs occupy a relatively large amount of space that may be opposed by nearby communities. Moreover, reservoirs can potentially have major environmental consequences such as harming downstream habitats. On the other hand, the limitation of the run-of-river project
5304-461: Is the use of falling or fast-running water to produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by converting the gravitational potential or kinetic energy of a water source to produce power. Hydropower is a method of sustainable energy production. Hydropower is now used principally for hydroelectric power generation , and is also applied as one half of an energy storage system known as pumped-storage hydroelectricity . Hydropower
5440-511: Is the waste of water through lack of charging." In Washington, D.C., on the 16 April 2000 IMF and World Bank meetings, protesters attempted to blockade the streets to stop the meeting. They cited the Water Wars in Bolivia as an example of corporate greed and a reason to resist globalization. Oscar Olivera attended the protests, saying, "The people have recaptured their dignity, their capacity to organize themselves - and most important of all,
5576-568: The Aguas del Tunari staff had come from, many of their new clients only earned about $ 100 a month and $ 20 was more than they spent on food. In complete ignorance of the reality of his situation, a manager for the consortium, Geoffrey Thorpe simply said "if people didn't pay their water bills their water would be turned off." The poor were joined in their protest by January 2000, when middle-class homeowners and large business owners stripped of their subsidies saw their own water bills increase. As anger over
Cochabamba Water War - Misplaced Pages Continue
5712-924: The Columbia River and its tributaries. The Bureau of Reclamation built the Hoover Dam in 1931, symbolically linking the job creation and economic growth priorities of the New Deal . The federal government quickly followed Hoover with the Shasta Dam and Grand Coulee Dam . Power demand in Oregon did not justify damming the Columbia until WWI revealed the weaknesses of a coal-based energy economy. The federal government then began prioritizing interconnected power—and lots of it. Electricity from all three dams poured into war production during WWII . After
5848-656: The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ghana , frequently sell excess power to neighboring countries. Foreign actors such as Chinese hydropower companies have proposed a significant amount of new hydropower projects in Africa, and already funded and consulted on many others in countries like Mozambique and Ghana. Small hydropower also played an important role in early 20th century electrification across Africa. In South Africa, small turbines powered gold mines and
5984-602: The Industrial Revolution would drive development as well. At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, water was the main power source for new inventions such as Richard Arkwright 's water frame . Although water power gave way to steam power in many of the larger mills and factories, it was still used during the 18th and 19th centuries for many smaller operations, such as driving
6120-697: The Mauryan , Gupta and Chola empires. Another example of the early use of hydropower is seen in hushing , a historic method of mining that uses flood or torrent of water to reveal mineral veins. The method was first used at the Dolaucothi Gold Mines in Wales from 75 AD onwards. This method was further developed in Spain in mines such as Las Médulas . Hushing was also widely used in Britain in
6256-891: The Medieval and later periods to extract lead and tin ores. It later evolved into hydraulic mining when used during the California Gold Rush in the 19th century. The Islamic Empire spanned a large region, mainly in Asia and Africa, along with other surrounding areas. During the Islamic Golden Age and the Arab Agricultural Revolution (8th–13th centuries), hydropower was widely used and developed. Early uses of tidal power emerged along with large hydraulic factory complexes. A wide range of water-powered industrial mills were used in
6392-1333: The Plurinational Constitutional Court , elected in October 2011, are: Ligia Velásquez, Mirtha Camacho, Melvy Andrade, Zoraida Chanes, Gualberto Cusi, Efraín Choque, and Ruddy Flores. The elected alternate members are: Isabel Ortuño, Lidia Chipana, Mario Pacosillo, Katia López, Javier Aramayo, Miriam Pacheco, and Rommy Colque. The members of the Supreme Court of Justice, elected in October 2011, are: Maritza Suntura (La Paz Department), Jorge Isaac Von Borries Méndez (Santa Cruz), Rómulo Calle Mamani (Oruro), Pastor Segundo Mamani Villca (Potosí), Antonio Guido Campero Segovia (Tarija), Gonzalo Miguel Hurtado Zamorano (Beni), Fidel Marcos Tordoya Rivas (Cochabamba), Rita Susana Nava (Tarija), and Norka Natalia Mercado Guzmán (Pando). The elected alternate members are: William Alave (La Paz), María Arminda Ríos García (Santa Cruz), Ana Adela Quispe Cuba (Oruro), Elisa Sánchez Mamani (Potosí), Carmen Núñez Villegas (Tarija), Silvana Rojas Panoso (Beni), María Lourdes Bustamante (Cochabamba), Javier Medardo Serrano (Tarija), and Delfín Humberto Betancour Chinchilla (Pando). Gonzalo Miguel Hurtado Zamorano
6528-668: The Plurinational Electoral Organ , is an independent branch of government which replaced the National Electoral Court in 2010. The branch consists of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, the nine Departmental Electoral Tribunals, Electoral Judges, the anonymously selected Juries at Election Tables, and Electoral Notaries. Wilfredo Ovando presides over the seven-member Supreme Electoral Tribunal. Its operations are mandated by
6664-595: The Supreme Court of Justice , the Plurinational Constitutional Court , the Judiciary Council, Agrarian and Environmental Court, and District (departmental) and lower courts. In October 2011, Bolivia held its first judicial elections to choose members of the national courts by popular vote. Twenty-eight elected members and twenty-eight alternates were sworn in on 3 January 2011 in Sucre. The members of
6800-503: The president is head of state , head of government and head of a diverse multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of parliament. Both the Judiciary and the electoral branch are independent of the executive and the legislature. After the 2014 Bolivian general election , 53.1% of the seats in national parliament were held by women,
6936-821: The "state of siege" declaration. This was the seventh time since Bolivia returned to democracy in 1982 that the "state of siege" decree had been employed. On April 9, 2000, near the city of Achacachi, soldiers met resistance to removing a roadblock and opened fire, killing two people (including a teenage boy) and wounding several others. Angry residents overpowered soldiers and used their weapons against military leaders. They wounded Battalion commander Armando Carrasco Nava and army captain Omar Jesus Tellez Arancibia. The demonstrators then found Tellez in hospital, dragged him from his bed, beat him to death and dismembered his body. Also, on April 9, 2000, 800 striking police officers fired tear gas at soldiers (to which
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#17327763638187072-1007: The 2009 elections. Three political parties were dominant from 1982 to 2005: The Revolutionary Nationalist Movement which had carried out the 1952 Revolution; Revolutionary Left Movement ; and Nationalist Democratic Action founded in 1982 by former dictator and later elected President Hugo Banzer . Despite the revolutionary names of the first two, they generally pursued centrist economic policies. Other parties include: Some of Bolivia's social movements are: International organization participation: ALBA , CAN, CELAC , FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO (correspondent), ITU, LAES, LAIA, Mercosur (associate), MIGA, MINUSTAH, MONUC, NAM, OAS, ONUB, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG , UN, UNAMSIL, UNASUR, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIK, UNMIL, UNMISET, UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO Hydropower Hydropower (from Ancient Greek ὑδρο -, "water"), also known as water power ,
7208-485: The 4th century BC refer to the term cakkavattaka (turning wheel), which commentaries explain as arahatta-ghati-yanta (machine with wheel-pots attached), however whether this is water or hand powered is disputed by scholars India received Roman water mills and baths in the early 4th century AD when a certain according to Greek sources. Dams, spillways, reservoirs, channels, and water balance would develop in India during
7344-805: The Administrative Decentralization law of 1995. Departmental autonomy further increased with the first popular elections for departmental governors, known as prefects, on 18 December 2005. Departments are governed by the elected governors (until 2010, prefects; and until 2005, appointed by the President) and by independently elected Departmental Legislative Assemblies (until 2010; Departmental Councils). Bolivian cities and towns are governed by directly elected mayors and councils. Municipal elections were last held on 4 April 2010, with both mayors councils elected to five-year terms. The Popular Participation Law of April 1994, which distributes
7480-836: The American West, organized opposition to hydroelectric dams sparked up in the 1950s and 60s based on environmental concerns. Environmental movements successfully shut down proposed hydropower dams in Dinosaur National Monument and the Grand Canyon , and gained more hydropower-fighting tools with 1970s environmental legislation. As nuclear and fossil fuels grew in the 70s and 80s and environmental activists push for river restoration, hydropower gradually faded in American importance. Foreign powers and IGOs have frequently used hydropower projects in Africa as
7616-679: The British worked with Egypt to construct the first Aswan Dam, which they heightened in 1912 and 1934 to try to hold back the Nile floods. Egyptian engineer Adriano Daninos developed a plan for the Aswan High Dam, inspired by the Tennessee Valley Authority's multipurpose dam. When Gamal Abdel Nasser took power in the 1950s, his government decided to undertake the High Dam project, publicizing it as an economic development project. After American refusal to help fund
7752-618: The Constitution and regulated by the Electoral Regime Law (Law 026, passed 2010). The Organ's first elections will be the country's first judicial election in October 2011 and five municipal special elections expected to be held in 2011. Bolivia is divided into nine departments (departamentos, singular – departamento); Chuquisaca , Cochabamba , Beni , La Paz , Oruro , Pando , Potosi , Santa Cruz , Tarija . Bolivia's nine departments received greater autonomy under
7888-697: The Grand Coulee to build a nuclear site placed on the banks of the Columbia. The nuclear site leaked radioactive matter into the river, contaminating the entire area. Post-WWII Americans, especially engineers from the Tennessee Valley Authority , refocused from simply building domestic dams to promoting hydropower abroad. While domestic dam building continued well into the 1970s, with the Reclamation Bureau and Army Corps of Engineers building more than 150 new dams across
8024-612: The Hun waterwheel; some of the earliest ones are the Jijiupian dictionary of 40 BC, Yang Xiong 's text known as the Fangyan of 15 BC, as well as Xin Lun, written by Huan Tan about 20 AD. It was also during this time that the engineer Du Shi (c. AD 31) applied the power of waterwheels to piston - bellows in forging cast iron. Ancient Indian texts dating back to
8160-633: The International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank Group , was a share-holder of Aguas de Illimani. The ambassador pointed out that since the case was brought before the ICSID , which is an arm of the World Bank, a conflict of interest arose in this affair. Bolivian government The politics of Bolivia takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby
8296-560: The Judiciary Council on 4 January 2012. The members of the Agro-environmental Court, elected in October 2011, are (in order of total votes received): Bernardo Huarachi, Deysi Villagómez, Gabriela Armijo Paz, Javier Peñafiel, Juan Ricardo Soto, Lucio Fuentes, and Yola Paucara. The elected alternate members are: Isabel Ortuño, Lidia Chipana, Mario Pacosillo, Katia López, Javier Aramayo, Miriam Pacheco, and Rommy Colque. The electoral branch of Bolivia's government, formally
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#17327763638188432-639: The Nile, hydroelectric projects cover the rivers and lakes of Africa. The Inga powerplant on the Congo River had been discussed since Belgian colonization in the late 19th century, and was successfully built after independence. Mobutu's government failed to regularly maintain the plants and their capacity declined until the 1995 formation of the Southern African Power Pool created a multi-national power grid and plant maintenance program. States with an abundance of hydropower, such as
8568-565: The Presidency of Eduardo Rodriguez Veltze) and Aguas del Tunari , it was agreed (according to the Bechtel press release) that "the concession was terminated only because of the civil unrest and the state of emergency in Cochabamba and not because of any act done or not done by the international shareholders of Aguas del Tunari". With this statement the shareholders withdrew any financial claims against Bolivia. When no sitting judge would hear
8704-1213: The United States' hydroelectric plants in Niagara Falls and the Sierra Nevada inspired bigger and bolder creations across the globe. American and USSR financers and hydropower experts also spread the gospel of dams and hydroelectricity across the globe during the Cold War , contributing to projects such as the Three Gorges Dam and the Aswan High Dam . Feeding desire for large scale electrification with water inherently required large dams across powerful rivers, which impacted public and private interests downstream and in flood zones. Inevitably smaller communities and marginalized groups suffered. They were unable to successfully resist companies flooding them out of their homes or blocking traditional salmon passages. The stagnant water created by hydroelectric dams provides breeding ground for pests and pathogens , leading to local epidemics . However, in some cases,
8840-491: The World Bank. Congressman Evo Morales 's actions in the Water Wars raised his profile, and he was elected President of Bolivia in 2005. Omar Fernandez joined Morales' Movement for Socialism and became a Bolivian senator. The Cochabamba protests of 2000 are chronicled by Olivera in his book Cochabamba! Water Rebellion in Bolivia . On 19 January 2006, a settlement was reached between the Government of Bolivia (then under
8976-441: The bellows in small blast furnaces (e.g. the Dyfi Furnace ) and gristmills , such as those built at Saint Anthony Falls , which uses the 50-foot (15 m) drop in the Mississippi River . Technological advances moved the open water wheel into an enclosed turbine or water motor . In 1848, the British-American engineer James B. Francis , head engineer of Lowell's Locks and Canals company, improved on these designs to create
9112-404: The case against Captain Robinson Iriarte, it was transferred to a military tribunal (that had final jurisdiction over which cases it hears). In March 2002, Captain Iriarte was acquitted by the tribunal of any responsibility for the death of Víctor Hugo Daza. After Iriarte's acquittal, he was promoted to the rank of major. In the end, water prices in Cochabamba returned to their pre-2000 levels with
9248-417: The cities blocked, with food shortages, passengers stranded and chaos beginning to take hold in other cities." The decree suspended "some constitutional guarantees, allowing police to detain protest leaders without a warrant, restrict travel and political activity and establish a curfew." Meetings of over four people were outlawed, and the freedom of the press was curtailed with radio stations being taken over by
9384-404: The consortium had no interest in building the dam, it was a condition of their contract, as it was backed by an influential member of Banzer's mega-coalition, the mayor of Cochabamba, Manfred Reyes Villa . An attempt to privatize the water system had been made without the condition of building the dam in 1997, but Reyes Villa had used his influence to quash the deal. Critics of Reyes Villa held that
9520-442: The construction and engineering industry. The water network that they envisioned was projected to provide drinking water to all the people of Cochabamba. This was set to double the existing coverage area and also introduce electrical production to more of the region. Without regard for its weak bargaining position, the Bolivian government under President Hugo Banzer agreed to the terms of its sole bidder Aguas del Tunari and signed
9656-405: The contract Aguas del Tunari had agreed to pay the $ 30 million in debt accumulated by SEMAPA. They also agreed to finance an expansion of the water system, and began a much needed maintenance program on the existing deteriorating water system. Dider Quint, a managing director for the consortium, said "We were confident that we could implement this program in a shorter period than the one required by
9792-424: The contract. [To accomplish this] We had to reflect in the tariff increase all the increases that had never been implemented before." On top of this, in order to secure the contract, Aguas del Tunari had to promise the Bolivian government to fund the completion of the stalled Misicuni dam project. The dam was purportedly designed to pipe water through the mountains, but the World Bank had deemed it uneconomic. While
9928-440: The cost of building new hydroelectric dams increased 4% annually between 1965 and 1990, due both to the increasing costs of construction and to the decrease in high quality building sites. In the 1990s, only 18% of the world's electricity came from hydropower. Tidal power production also emerged in the 1960s as a burgeoning alternative hydropower system, though still has not taken hold as a strong energy contender. Especially at
10064-427: The country. The Bolivian government turned to the World Bank as a last resort against economic meltdown. For the next 20 years, successive governments followed the World Bank's provisions in order to qualify for continued loans from the organization. The World Bank said that "poor governments are often too plagued by local corruption ", similarly the World Bank stated that "no subsidies should be given to ameliorate
10200-425: The dam was a "vanity project" which would profit "some of his main financial backers". The officials in Bolivia for Aguas del Tunari were mostly engineers lacking marketing training. They were also foreigners unaware of the intricacies of Bolivian society and economics. Upon taking control, the company raised water rates an average of 35% to about $ 20 a month. While this seemed minuscule in the developed nations that
10336-673: The dam, and anti-British sentiment in Egypt and British interests in neighboring Sudan combined to make the United Kingdom pull out as well, the Soviet Union funded the Aswan High Dam. Between 1977 and 1990 the dam's turbines generated one third of Egypt's electricity. The building of the Aswan Dam triggered a dispute between Sudan and Egypt over the sharing of the Nile, especially since the dam flooded part of Sudan and decreased
10472-468: The demonstration were drawn from the city's growing population of homeless street children. Protesters halted Cochabamba's economy by holding a general strike that shut down the city for four days. A ministerial delegation went to Cochabamba and agreed to roll back the water rates; still the demonstration continued. On 4 February 2000, thousands marching in protest were met by troops and law enforcement from Oruro and La Paz. Two days of clashes occurred with
10608-555: The direction of Olivera, and by Bolivian citizens. Young men began to try to take over the plaza and a barricade across incoming roadways was set up. Soon they were joined by pieceworkers, sweatshop employees, and street vendors (a large segment of the economy since the closure of the state-owned tin mines). Anarchists from the middle-classes came from the University of Cochabamba to denounce the World Bank and International Monetary Fund and neoliberalism . The strongest supporters of
10744-619: The early 20th century, two major factors motivated the expansion of hydropower in Europe: in the northern countries of Norway and Sweden high rainfall and mountains proved exceptional resources for abundant hydropower, and in the south coal shortages pushed governments and utility companies to seek alternative power sources. Early on, Switzerland dammed the Alpine rivers and the Swiss Rhine , creating, along with Italy and Scandinavia ,
10880-589: The executive branch. The heads of these ministries form the cabinet. The bicameral Plurinational Legislative Assembly consists of the Chamber of Senators (36 seats; members are elected by proportional representation from party lists to serve five-year terms) and the Chamber of Deputies (130 seats; 70 are directly elected from their districts, 63 are elected by proportional representation from party lists, and 7 are elected by indigenous peoples of most departments, to serve five-year terms). The judiciary consists of
11016-570: The falls far enough away to actually reach enough people and justify installation. The project succeeded in large part due to Nikola Tesla's invention of the alternating current motor . On the other side of the country, San Francisco engineers, the Sierra Club , and the federal government fought over acceptable use of the Hetch Hetchy Valley . Despite ostensible protection within a national park, city engineers successfully won
11152-590: The first century BC. The Barbegal mill , located in modern-day France, had 16 water wheels processing up to 28 tons of grain per day. Roman waterwheels were also used for sawing marble such as the Hierapolis sawmill of the late 3rd century AD. Such sawmills had a waterwheel that drove two crank-and-connecting rods to power two saws. It also appears in two 6th century Eastern Roman sawmills excavated at Ephesus and Gerasa respectively. The crank and connecting rod mechanism of these Roman watermills converted
11288-446: The first electric railway in the 1890s, and Zimbabwean farmers installed small hydropower stations in the 1930s. While interest faded as national grids improved in the second half of the century, 21st century national governments in countries including South Africa and Mozambique, as well as NGOs serving countries like Zimbabwe, have begun re-exploring small-scale hydropower to diversify power sources and improve rural electrification. In
11424-511: The first ever majority victory by a single party in the December 2005 elections . MAS evolved out of the movement to defend the interests of coca growers. Currently, the MAS stands as a party committed to equality, indigenous rights, agrarian land reform, Constitutional reform as well as nationalization of key industries with an aim to redistribute the returns through increased social spending. Among
11560-403: The first half of the 20th century began to speak out against them, and citizen groups organizing against dam projects increased. In the 1980s and 90s the international anti-dam movement had made finding government or private investors for new large hydropower projects incredibly difficult, and given rise to NGOs devoted to fighting dams. Additionally, while the cost of other energy sources fell,
11696-453: The flow of a body of water without necessarily changing its height. In this case, the available power is the kinetic energy of the flowing water. Over-shot water wheels can efficiently capture both types of energy. The flow in a stream can vary widely from season to season. The development of a hydropower site requires analysis of flow records , sometimes spanning decades, to assess the reliable annual energy supply. Dams and reservoirs provide
11832-521: The funds made available by the World Bank to support the public utility. The World Bank did not include a conditionality to privatize water in Santa Cruz where the local utility had been able to improve services, but only in the cities where the utilities had failed to improve services. The World Bank acknowledges that it provided assistance to prepare a concession contract for Cochabamba in 1997. However, its involvement with water in Cochabamba ended in
11968-502: The head lost due to flow friction in the power canal or penstock, rise in tailwater level due to flow, the location of the station and effect of varying gravity, the air temperature and barometric pressure, the density of the water at ambient temperature, and the relative altitudes of the forebay and tailbay. For precise calculations, errors due to rounding and the number of significant digits of constants must be considered. Some hydropower systems such as water wheels can draw power from
12104-419: The head. The power available from falling water can be calculated from the flow rate and density of water, the height of fall, and the local acceleration due to gravity: To illustrate, the power output of a turbine that is 85% efficient, with a flow rate of 80 cubic metres per second (2800 cubic feet per second) and a head of 145 metres (476 feet), is 97 megawatts: Operators of hydroelectric stations compare
12240-460: The high-efficiency Pelton wheel impulse turbine , which used hydropower from the high head streams characteristic of the Sierra Nevada . The modern history of hydropower begins in the 1900s, with large dams built not simply to power neighboring mills or factories but provide extensive electricity for increasingly distant groups of people. Competition drove much of the global hydroelectric craze: Europe competed amongst itself to electrify first, and
12376-400: The high-level intake. This allows it to fall down a shaft into a subterranean, high-roofed chamber where the now-compressed air separates from the water and becomes trapped. The height of the falling water column maintains compression of the air in the top of the chamber, while an outlet, submerged below the water level in the chamber allows water to flow back to the surface at a lower level than
12512-401: The highest among all renewable energy technologies. Hydroelectricity generation starts with converting either the potential energy of water that is present due to the site's elevation or the kinetic energy of moving water into electrical energy. Hydroelectric power plants vary in terms of the way they harvest energy. One type involves a dam and a reservoir . The water in the reservoir
12648-442: The increase in water tariffs in Cochabamba". The New Yorker reported on the World Bank's motives, "Most of the poorest neighborhoods were not hooked up to the network, so the state subsidies and water utility went mainly to industries and middle-class neighborhoods; the poor paid far more for water of dubious purity from trucks and handcarts. In the World Bank's view, it was a city that was crying out for water privatization ." In
12784-456: The installation of those meters. The broad nature of Law 2029 led many to claim that the government would require a license be obtained for people to collect rainwater from their roofs. The first to raise concerns over the scope of the law was the new Federación Departamental Cochabambina de Regantes (FEDECOR) and its leader Omar Fernandez. FEDECOR was made up of local professionals, including engineers and environmentalists . They were joined by
12920-598: The intake. A separate outlet in the roof of the chamber supplies the compressed air. A facility on this principle was built on the Montreal River at Ragged Shutes near Cobalt, Ontario , in 1910 and supplied 5,000 horsepower to nearby mines. Hydroelectricity is the biggest hydropower application. Hydroelectricity generates about 15% of global electricity and provides at least 50% of the total electricity supply for more than 35 countries. In 2021, global installed hydropower electrical capacity reached almost 1400 GW,
13056-532: The interests of the new tin fortunes (the liberal era is sometimes also considered to be the tin era, with tin production having increased considerably), landowners and the army. Inspired by the example of the Ecuadorian Liberal Revolution of 1895 led by Eloy Alfaro , a new liberalism organized itself into a republican party and expressed some social concerns against the domination of the liberal oligarchy. Bolivia's current constitution
13192-472: The involvement of the coca growers, the Bolivian government claimed that the demonstrators were actually agents or pawns of drug traffickers. Ronald MacLean Abaroa, the Minister of Information, told reporters the demonstrations were the work of drug traffickers trying to stop the government program to eradicate coca fields and replace them with cotton, pineapples, and bananas. He said that "These protests [were]
13328-497: The last unexploited energy sources in nature. When it rains, billions of litres of water can fall, which have an enormous electric potential if used in the right way." Research is being done into the different methods of generating power from rain, such as by using the energy in the impact of raindrops. This is in its very early stages with new and emerging technologies being tested, prototyped and created. Such power has been called rain power. One method in which this has been attempted
13464-405: The law represented a preferential attitude to foreign capital over the national interest. This opposition expressed by the community arose from across the political spectrum. The traditional left claimed that the transfer of state property to private enterprises was unconstitutional while the right opposed the denationalization of enterprises that it considered vital and strategic. As a condition of
13600-441: The law was to introduce concessions and licenses for the supply of potable water for cities with more than 10,000 inhabitants. For many Bolivians, the implementation of law 2029 and the concessions that accompanied it symbolized all the issues of the neoliberal development strategy—its obvious lack of concern for equity, its rejection of the role of the state, and in a country with a very long tradition of anti-imperialist rhetoric,
13736-500: The maximum flood. Some disadvantages of hydropower have been identified. Dam failures can have catastrophic effects, including loss of life, property and pollution of land. Dams and reservoirs can have major negative impacts on river ecosystems such as preventing some animals traveling upstream, cooling and de-oxygenating of water released downstream, and loss of nutrients due to settling of particulates. River sediment builds river deltas and dams prevent them from restoring what
13872-474: The military and some newspaper reporters being arrested. The police moved in to enforce the policy with nighttime raids and mass arrests. At one point 20 labor union and civic leaders were arrested. The police's tear gas and rubber bullets were met by the protesters' rocks and Molotov cocktails . Continuing violent clashes between the demonstrators and law enforcement led to internal exile, 40 injuries, and five deaths. International Human Rights Organizations decried
14008-595: The nation's second largest city, also went on strike demanding a raise. The coca growers of Bolivia led by then-Congressman Evo Morales (later elected President of Bolivia in December 2005 ) had joined the demonstrators and were demanding an end to the United States-sponsored program of coca eradication of their crops (while coca leaf can be heavily refined and made into cocaine it is used legally by many in Bolivia for teas and for chewing). Seeing
14144-709: The people are no longer scared." On 23 April 2002 Oscar Olivera led 125 protesters to the San Francisco headquarters of Bechtel, the only member of Aguas del Tunari located in the Americas. Olivera said "With the $ 25 million they are seeking, 125,000 people could have access to water." Bechtel officials agreed to meet him. The victory gained the cocalero and campesino groups international support from anti-globalisation groups. Oscar Olivera and Omar Fernandez have become sought after speakers at venues discussing how to resist resource privatization and venues critical of
14280-580: The police using tear gas. Almost 200 demonstrators were arrested; 70 protesters and 51 policemen were injured. Throughout March 2000 the Bolivian hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church tried to mediate between the government and the demonstrators. In the meantime, the Coordinadora made their own referendum and declared that out of fifty thousand votes, 96% demanded the contract with Aguas del Tunari be cancelled. The government's reply
14416-495: The poor, rural and indigenous population the MAS enjoys nearly unanimous support. The right-of-center opposition includes a variety of political parties. During the 2005–09 political cycle the largest of these was PODEMOS , a successor to Nationalist Democratic Action. In the 2009 elections, several parties and politicians united to form Plan Progreso para Bolivia – Convergencia Nacional , whose presidential candidate, Manfred Reyes Villa and parliamentary slate came in second in
14552-478: The rates mounted, Reyes Villa was quick to distance himself from Aguas del Tunari . Starting in early January 2000 massive protests in Cochabamba began with Oscar Olivera among the most outspoken leaders against the rate hikes and subsequent water cut-offs. The demonstrators consisted of regantes (peasant irrigators) who entered the city either under village banners, or carrying the wiphala ; they were joined by jubilados (retired unionized factory workers) under
14688-606: The region including fulling mills, gristmills , paper mills , hullers , sawmills , ship mills , stamp mills , steel mills , sugar mills , and tide mills . By the 11th century, every province throughout the Islamic Empire had these industrial mills in operation, from Al-Andalus and North Africa to the Middle East and Central Asia . Muslim engineers also used water turbines while employing gears in watermills and water-raising machines. They also pioneered
14824-477: The rights to both water and power in the Hetch Hetchy Valley in 1913. After their victory they delivered Hetch Hetchy hydropower and water to San Francisco a decade later and at twice the promised cost, selling power to PG&E which resold to San Francisco residents at a profit. The American West, with its mountain rivers and lack of coal, turned to hydropower early and often, especially along
14960-546: The roadblocks that had cut off highways in five of the country's nine provinces. After a televised recording of a Bolivian Army captain, Robinson Iriarte de la Fuente, firing a rifle into a crowd of demonstrators, wounding many and hitting high school student Víctor Hugo Daza in the face, killing him, intense anger erupted. The police told the executives of the consortium that their safety could no longer be guaranteed. The executives then fled from Cochabamba to Santa Cruz . After coming out of four days of hiding, Oscar Olivera signed
15096-514: The rotary motion of the waterwheel into the linear movement of the saw blades. Water-powered trip hammers and bellows in China, during the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD), were initially thought to be powered by water scoops . However, some historians suggested that they were powered by waterwheels. This is since it was theorized that water scoops would not have had the motive force to operate their blast furnace bellows. Many texts describe
15232-513: The same period. Evidence of water wheels and watermills date to the ancient Near East in the 4th century BC. Moreover, evidence indicates the use of hydropower using irrigation machines to ancient civilizations such as Sumer and Babylonia . Studies suggest that the water wheel was the initial form of water power and it was driven by either humans or animals. In the Roman Empire , water-powered mills were described by Vitruvius by
15368-460: The same year. At that time the bidding process for the concession had been declared void by the Supreme Court in response to a legal challenge by the municipality of Cochabamba. In the same year the World Bank project in the three cities ended. The World Bank thus was not included any more in the subsequent phase of the privatization. The Misicuni dam project was later pursued by Evo Morales when he became President of Bolivia nine years later. It
15504-485: The situation by saying, "afterwards, what had we gained? We were still hungry and poor." Similar protests took place in La Paz over Aguas de Illimani , a subsidiary of the French multinational Suez . Aguas de Illimani's contract with the state was broken after allegations were made by the Bolivian government that it did not respect all the clauses of the contract. According to the Bolivian ambassador Pablo Solón Romero ,
15640-423: The situation can not be improved. A local resident complained that water-truck operators "drill polluted water and sell it. They [also] waste a lot of water." According to author Frederik Segerfeldt, "the poor of Cochabamba are still paying 10 times as much for their water as the rich, connected households and continue to indirectly subsidize water consumption of more well-to-do sectors of the community. Water nowadays
15776-435: The soldiers then fired their weapons in the air). In response the government gave a 50% pay raise to the La Paz police to end the strike. This brought their monthly income up from the equivalent of $ 80 to $ 120. The police then returned to enforcement procedures against those still demonstrating. A group of soldiers soon demanded their own raise, declaring that there was racial discrimination in the pay scale. Police in Santa Cruz,
15912-489: The start of the American hydropower experiment, engineers and politicians began major hydroelectricity projects to solve a problem of 'wasted potential' rather than to power a population that needed the electricity. When the Niagara Falls Power Company began looking into damming Niagara, the first major hydroelectric project in the United States, in the 1890s they struggled to transport electricity from
16048-426: The system was built for a far smaller city and worried about shrinking aquifers . A system to bring water down from the mountains would cost $ 300 million and SEMAPA's budget is only about $ 5 million a year. The New Yorker reports "in Cochabamba, those who are not on the network and who have no well, pay ten times as much for their water as the relatively wealthy residents who are hooked up", and with no new capital
16184-423: The total electrical energy produced with the theoretical potential energy of the water passing through the turbine to calculate efficiency. Procedures and definitions for calculation of efficiency are given in test codes such as ASME PTC 18 and IEC 60041. Field testing of turbines is used to validate the manufacturer's efficiency guarantee. Detailed calculation of the efficiency of a hydropower turbine accounts for
16320-721: The use of dams as a source of water power, used to provide additional power to watermills and water-raising machines. Islamic irriguation techniques including Persian Wheels would be introduced to India, and would be combined with local methods, during the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire . Furthermore, in his book, The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices , the Muslim mechanical engineer, Al-Jazari (1136–1206) described designs for 50 devices. Many of these devices were water-powered, including clocks,
16456-563: The volume of water available to them. Ethiopia , also located on the Nile, took advantage of the Cold War tensions to request assistance from the United States for their own irrigation and hydropower investments in the 1960s. While progress stalled due to the coup d'état of 1974 and following 17-year-long Ethiopian Civil War Ethiopia began construction on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in 2011. Beyond
16592-481: The war, the Grand Coulee Dam and accompanying hydroelectric projects electrified almost all of the rural Columbia Basin , but failed to improve the lives of those living and farming there the way its boosters had promised and also damaged the river ecosystem and migrating salmon populations. In the 1940s as well, the federal government took advantage of the sheer amount of unused power and flowing water from
16728-618: The world are conventional hydroelectric power stations with dams. Hydroelectricity can also be used to store energy in the form of potential energy between two reservoirs at different heights with pumped-storage . Water is pumped uphill into reservoirs during periods of low demand to be released for generation when demand is high or system generation is low. Other forms of electricity generation with hydropower include tidal stream generators using energy from tidal power generated from oceans, rivers, and human-made canal systems to generating electricity. Rain has been referred to as "one of
16864-415: Was adopted via referendum in 2009 , providing for a unitary secular state. The president is directly elected to a five-year term by popular vote. A candidate needs either an absolute majority or 40% and a 10-point lead to win the election. In the case that no candidate is elected in the first vote, a run-off vote elects the president from among the two candidates most voted in the first vote. Hugo Banzer
17000-424: Was changed. To get a quorum to amend the law the government even rented planes to fly legislators back to the capital. In a special session on 11 April 2000 the law was changed. On 12 April 2000 when asked about outcome in Bolivia, World Bank President James Wolfensohn maintained that free or subsidized delivery of a public service like water leads to abuse of the resource; he said, "The biggest problem with water
17136-603: Was chosen president by Congress , winning an 84–43 vote against popular vote runner-up Evo Morales . Elected president Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada resigned in October 2003, and was substituted by vice-president Carlos Mesa who governed the nation until his resignation in June 2005. He was replaced by chief justice of the Supreme Court Eduardo Rodríguez , acting as caretaker president. Six months later, on December 18, 2005, cocalero leader Evo Morales
17272-402: Was described as a public uprising against water prices . The tensions erupted when a new firm, Aguas del Tunari (a joint venture involving Bechtel ), was required to invest in construction of a long-envisioned dam (a priority of mayor Manfred Reyes Villa ), so they had drastically raised water rates. Protests, largely organized through the Coordinadora (Coalition in Defense of Water and Life),
17408-469: Was elected president in 1997. Although no candidate had received more than 50% of the popular vote in the national election, Banzer won a congressional runoff election on 5 August 1997 after forming the so-called "megacoalition" with other parties. He resigned in August 2001 and was substituted by his vice president Jorge Quiroga . In August 2002, the winner of the national election Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada
17544-465: Was elected President of the Court on 3 January 2012. The Supreme Court of Justice replaces the Supreme Court , active since Bolivia's founding in 1825. The members of the Judiciary Council, elected in October 2011, are (in order of total votes received): Cristina Mamani, Freddy Sanabria, Wilma Mamani, Roger Triveño, and Ernesto Araníbar. Cristina Mamani was elected by her peers as the first president of
17680-433: Was elected president. A group of MEPs acting as election observers oversaw a constitutional referendum in Bolivia that gave more power to indigenous peoples 25 January 2009. The tightly fought referendum laid out a number of key reforms such as allowing President Evo Morales to stand for re-election, state control over natural gas and limits on the size of land people can own. Bolivia currently has twenty-one ministries in
17816-615: Was implemented in the commercial plant of Niagara Falls in 1895 and it is still operating. In the early 20th century, English engineer William Armstrong built and operated the first private electrical power station which was located in his house in Cragside in Northumberland , England. In 1753, the French engineer Bernard Forest de Bélidor published his book, Architecture Hydraulique , which described vertical-axis and horizontal-axis hydraulic machines. The growing demand for
17952-496: Was justified through its benefits for hydropower generation and irrigation in addition to potable water supply for Cochabamba. Construction began on the dam in June 2009 and was completed in September 2017. Prior to privatization the water works of Cochabamba were controlled by the state agency SEMAPA. After pressure from the World Bank, Bolivia put SEMAPA up for auction for privatization but not capitalization. Only one party
18088-471: Was seen as "enabling the sale of water resources that had never really been a part of SEMAPA in the first place." Many became worried that independent communal water systems which had yet to be connected with SEMAPA would be "summarily appropriated by the new concession." By Law 2029, if Aguas del Tunari had wanted to, not only could it have installed meters and begin charging independently built communal water systems, but it could have also charged residents for
18224-634: Was set to correlate with a government plan to present a $ 63 million rural development package to peasants with funds for crop diversification , and extending electric and telephone services to remote areas. To ensure the legality of the privatization the Bolivian government passed law 2029, which verified the contract with Aguas del Tunari . To many people, the law appeared to give a monopoly to Aguas del Tunari over all water resources. Many feared that this included water used for irrigation by peasant farmers ( campesinos ), and community-based resources that had previously been independent of regulation. The law
18360-428: Was that "There is nothing to negotiate." In April 2000, demonstrators again took over Cochabamba's central plaza. When the leaders of the Coordinadora (including Óscar Olivera) went to a meeting with the governor at his office they were arrested. Though they were released the following day, some, fearing further government action, fled into hiding. More demonstration leaders were arrested, with some being transferred to
18496-497: Was willing to bid on the project. This was Aguas del Tunari , a consortium between the British firm International Waters (55 percent) - itself a subsidiary of the construction giant Bechtel (USA) and United Utilities (UK) - the engineering and construction firm Abengoa of Spain (25 percent) and four Bolivian companies including Befesa/Edison, Constructora Petricevic, Sociedad Boliviana de Cemento (SOBOCE), Compania Boliviana de Ingenieria and ICE Agua y Energia S.A., all involved with
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