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Bolivia blog 10: Illimani and the Khapi community

“Sin preguntas, sin negociar, el agua es vida” read one of the last billboards I saw as I was leaving La Paz. "Without question, without negotiation: water is life". The right to water, and the fear of losing it, has been a common theme since I arrived in Bolivia. Realising the right to water has long been a struggle for people here, even before the famous water wars in 2000. Now climate change brings a new threats, with melting glaciers and erratic rainfalls putting new pressures on the already scarce resources.

Yesterday, I went to visit the Khapi community at the foothills of the Illimani glacier that overlooks La Paz, dominating the skyline. Illimani has long been said by indigenous Aymara communities to be a guardian of the people. There’s certainly some wisdom in this. Not only is the glacier the source of water for the hundred of communities who live in the hills below it, as well as upwards of twenty percent of La Paz’s water supply (some estimate that it is closer to forty percent), but these agricultural communities are also the gardens of the La Paz, providing...

Bolivia blog 9: 'Living well' and the World Bank

Last night, I met with Marcos from CIPCA, an organisation working with small farming communities around Bolivia, looking at the impacts of climate change and how to deal with it, at both a practical and policy level. We were discussing the Cochabamba cumbre and the resulting Cochabamba Accord, 'The People's Accord', that will be submitted to the UNFCCC.  


“What do you think of the Bolivian concepts of Vivir Bien ['living well'], and Mother Earth Rights that are being put forward to the UN,” he asked, “What do you think people in Europe think of them?” I paused before answering, wanting to be honest.
 
“To me, the concepts seem instinctive, but, truthfully, I think people in Europe find them hard to take seriously, they snigger – in part because of the name. I think for many people it has connotations of new age hippies," I tired to explain, "Which of course is ridiculous given that the concept of Pachamama has been around through the history of indigenous people.”
 
Marcos nodded, knowingly, “I think the easiest way to understand it is to think about...

Bolivia blog 8: May Day in La Paz

From what I have seen in the last few weeks, Bolivia seems to me to be one of the most politically engaged countries I have experienced. In my short time here, I’ve already stumbled across a number of impromptu demonstrations. Last week in Cochabamba, as I was walking to visit Marcella Olivera, an amazing and inspiring activist who played a significant role in the water wars of 2000 and an active campaigner on water ever since, and people were blockading the crossroads down from her office. It was hard to know why; even the people in Marcella’s office weren’t sure. It’s hardly surprising then, that 1st May, Labour Day, is a big event in La Paz, Bolivian’s capital.

The Labour Day march had started early in the morning in El Alto, one of the poorer districts on the outskirts of La Paz. Still struggling with the altitude (at over 4,000 metres, La Paz is the world’s highest city), I was glad to that I had friends from the cumbra arriving that morning, providing me with an excuse to join the march until a little later when it reached the city’s centre. Not familiar with the route, we went to Plaza Murillo, the march’s final destination, and followed the sound of the fire crackers in the distance. We came out of one of the small side streets, towards the footbridge...

Bolivia blog 7: Moving forward, looking back

As I write, I’m on the bus, heading north from Cochabamba on the long road to La Paz. Saying goodbye to Cochabamba, after two very different but equally inspiring conferences back to back – the ten year anniversary of the water wars and the People´s Conference – as well as meeting so many amazing people, feels like quite a pull. But at the same time I know that many of the connections and ideas that have come about in Cochabamba will last long beyond the time I have spent here.

The eight hour bus trip seems like a opportunity to reflect on the past few days. I’ve been on the bus for four hours now. The journey began with hints of lush green shrubs and plants clinging to the landscape. ‘Lush green’ should be usual at this time of the year, as the rainy season is just drawing to a close. But, as many people have told me since I arrived, not much rain fell this year, and the land is dry. As the scorched hills role past, the midday sun burns through the window and down on the deep red earth. We pass by parched rivers, and animals struggling to drink from evaporated lakes. The road, though a main highway connecting two major cities, is little populated. From the bus, Many of the adobe mud houses scattering the landscape, seem abandoned. Of course, as an...

Bolivia blog post 6 - more than a thousand words


On the final day of the ‘cumbre’, I thought a photo diary would be the best way to capture some of the sights of Bolivia.

1. A bird hitches a ride on the windscreen wipers of the ‘trufi’, the shared taxi, from Cochambamba to Tiquipaya where the cumbre was taking place:

A bird sitting on the bonnet of a car
 

2. Two women in traditional dress stand talking at the side of the road near the entrance to the conference:

Two Bolivian women in brightly coloured clothes
 

 3. Stalls set up for the conference participants, creating a micro-economy in itself:

People standing in front of stalls

4. A man entertains the passers by to the sound of Elvis’ Blue Suede Shoes:

...

Bolivia blog 5: Climate debt, we're not all in this together

To the 'people of the world' gathered in Cochabamba, its becoming increasingly clear that climate change is not just an environmental issue but a matter of justice. This week, hearing the testimonies of people from across the world where the impacts of climate change are already pervading into daily reality, has been incredibly powerful. But climate justice is not just about the impacts of climate change, but also impacts from the causes of climate change; the deforestation that destroys the way of life for forest peoples, extraction of fossil fuels, all too often being pushed through the neo-liberal policies of institutions like the World Bank, and mined by transnational corporations, with no concern for the impacts of local people. Even many of the solutions being proposed and implemented are pushing people into displacement and deeper poverty. As I heard one African speaker said today, “As long as they keep pushing false solutions, the climate debt continues to increase.”

Namoi Klein talking on panel

This morning I saw Naomi Klein...

Bolivia blog 4: Inauguration

This morning saw the inauguration of the People’s conference on climate change and mother earth rights. A crowd of thousands massed, a mixture of people from across the five continent of the world, creating a quilt of colour between indigenous dress and flags raised high as people awaited their host, Evo Morales, the first indigenous president of (what is now called) the ‘plurinational’ state of Bolivia, in spite of having one of the largest indigenous populations in Latin America. 

The crowds gathered under the sweltering sun in a vast auditorium, to the sounds of indigenous music from around the world, from the Maoris of New Zealand to Indian American tribes from Alaska, alongside indigenous music from across Latin America. This was interspersed with the voices ‘representatives of the people’s of the world’, people from social movements from across the five contents who conveyed their messages to the crowds, all strongly echoing the concept of the rights of Mother Earth; the concept that human rights cannot be met independently from the rights of our planet, that was submitted to the UNFCCC process in Copenhagen. Alongside this, the other common theme was a...

Bolivia blog3: Ten years on from the Cochabamba Water Wars

This weekend Cochabamba celebrated the tenth anniversary of its water wars. The small city, nestled at the foothills of the Andean mountain ranges, previously little known to the outside world, suddenly shot to fame in 2000 when cochabambinos forced Bechtel, a giant American corporation, out of town. Bechtel, under a subsidiary called Agua del Tunari, had taken over the town’s water supply in privatisation deal, pushed by the World Bank, that caused water rates to rise by over fifty percent in a matter of weeks. Taking place shortly after the ‘Battle in Seattle’ in 1999 and just before the G8 in Genoa in 2001, two iconic moments in the battle against the imposition of neo-liberal policies on the global south, the struggle in Cochabamba became an inspiration to people across the world, demonstrating what a small group of determined people could achieve.

two statues from the water campaign standing against a painted coke background
Two statues reading 'sin agua, no hay vida' (without water, there is no life') and '10 anos de lucha' (10 years of struggle)

The water wars bought together campesinos from the rural...

Bolivian Blog 2: First Impressions

Arriving in a new country is often a total sensory overload: sights, sounds, smells. And then, as you quickly get used to it, things that had once, not long before, seemed so different and fascinating fast become so normal you barely even notice them. With this in mind, having just arrived in Bolivia this evening, I thought I’d try to capture some of my feelings and thoughts.

Bolivia is a country that has long fascinated me, and I’m excited to be here. There’s a sense in the air of something exciting coming together, people from so many diverse backgrounds and experiences meeting to discuss where next for the global climate justice movement in a way that brings the people who should be at the heart of the discussions back into the picture. If this happens as intended, it will be quite the opposite of my experience at the flawed UN climate talks in Copenhagen when, by the end of the two week negotiations, the majority of civil society delegations were literally locked out of the proceedings, and even most southern government country delegations weren’t able to enter the room where the Copenhagen Accord was being negotiations.

...

Bolivia Blog 1: Getting ready, the People’s Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth Rights in Bolivia

Since the failure of the Copenhagen climate talks to both reach an outcome or even to ensure the voices of people who are going to be most effected by climate change were being represented, the Bolivian government have called a people’s conference to create space for the voices of the people – The People’s Summit on Climate Change and Mother Earth Rights

The importance of this conference at this time cannot be underestimated. Last weekend, the climate negotiations resumed at the headquarters of the UNFCCC in Bonn.  Here, more blatantly than ever before, rich countries were responsible for bullying and bribing the countries, that were standing up in opposition to the weak Copenhagen Accord – ironically not only the most affected but also the least responsible for causing the problem in the first place. One senior African diplomat told The Guardian that the UK, France, EU and US have told poor countries they would “suffer” if they did not back the Accord. WDM first revealed the bullying and bribery tactics of rich...

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