Ecuadorian Water Law Sparks Outrage from Indigenous Communities

October 23, 2009

Last month, around a thousand peasants marched and blockaded the streets of Cuenca, Ecuador, and many more came out in protests throughout the Ecuadorian Amazon, calling for the cancellation of a new water law.  If passed, the law would privatize water services, limit community and neighborhood water management, relax current measures on water contamination, and (to the great frustration of the activists) prioritize water access to private companies.  The demonstrations also came in reaction to a new mining measure, which would allow two Canadian companies—Corriente Resources Inc. and Kinross Gold Corp.—to resume gold explorations in contested areas of the Amazon where indigenous communities live.

The situation has only worsened since the beginning of October, leading to violent raids by police.  In the community of Macas, in the Southern Upano Valley, the attack left at least one confirmed dead and almost 50 injured.  President Rafael Correa has accused the leading indigenous organization, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), of trying to destabilize his government with “lies.” He claims that the protesters were acting on behalf of the country's conservatives who would like to see Correa fail.

Showdowns between the people and the government over indigenous rights and natural resources are nothing new in the Andes.  But in the case of Ecuador, the current conflict over the privatization of water is bringing to mind the so-called "Water War" that erupted in Bolivia in 2000. That dispute ended in a victory for the protesters.

It all started in 1999, when a partnership between the American multinational, Bechtel, and the Bolivian government—at the suggestion of the World Bank—signed a deal to improve water supplies to the city of Cochabamba.  The move increased the cost of the service by 35 percent, to about $20 a month. (The average salary in Cochabamba remained at $100 a month.)  Then hundreds of protesters took to the streets when one of the new water executives said, "If people fail to pay their accounts, we'll cut their service." Protests continued for three weeks until the government backed down.

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