Bolivia is a small and poor country in Latin America. The World Bank pressurised the government to give up its control of municipal water supply. The government sold these rights to an MNC. The company immediately increased the price of water four times. This led to a spontaneous popular protest. In January, 2000 a new alliance of labour, human rights and community leaders organised a successful strike for four days in the city and the government agreed to negotiate but nothing happened. Police resorted to brutal repression when the agitation was started again in Feburary. Another strike was there in April and government imposed martial law. But the power of people forced the officials of MNC to leave their city and made government to grant all demands of the protesters. The contract with MNC was cancelled and water supply was resorted to municipality at old rates. This is known as Bolivia’s water war.
