Water Resources Management in Bolivia - Water Management History and Recent Developments

Water Management History and Recent Developments

The 1906 Water Law (Ley general de aguas) marks the beginning of Bolivia's 20th Century water resources policy. The Water Law includes provisions such as water as a public good and establish Bolivian government as main authority responsible for water management. The definition of water rights is vague, “the water passing through the land belongs to the land owner as long as it does not affect others.” No provision is included for neither groundwater property rights nor water tariffs. The Water Law was minimally modified on 1945, to specify that “no water right includes the right to deny access to water to downstream water users.” In 1988, the Senate prepared a draft to modify the Water Law to include provisions such as groundwater as public domain, and to establish a water fee for farmers based on the area benefited with improved irrigation infrastructure. Similar attempts occurred in 1995 and 1999, when the government together with the World Bank and GTZ drafted a Water Law including some fundamental principles included in the 1988 version plus provisions on institutional framework and concessions of water rights. None of the three drafts turned into a new Water Law.

Despite these efforts to concentrate water resources management into a single legal document, the different sectors involved in water use continue to act separately in accordance with several laws such as the Electricity Act, the Hydrocarbon Act, the Mining Code and the Environmental act. The lack of a clear legal and institutional framework has made difficult to ensure appropriate quality and quantity of water for the different water users in the medium and long term.