Framing and blaming in the Cochabamba water agenda: local, municipal and regional perspectives

We present framings of water issues at three administrative levels in Cochabamba, Bolivia to increase insight of how actors’ perspectives facilitate, obstruct or strengthen suggested actions or solutions. Participatory vulnerability assessments were conducted with leaders in one peri-urban community...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Water policy 2017-08, Vol.19 (4), p.620-636
Main Authors: Wilk, Julie, Rydhagen, Birgitta, Jonsson, Anna C., del Callejo, Ivan, Cerruto, Noelia, Chila, German, Encinas, Silvia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation
Blame
Bolivia
Borders
Climate change
Cochabamba
Collaboration
Cooperation
Drinking water
Ecosystem management
Ecosystem protection
Environmental justice
Externality
Federalism
Fiscal federalism
Flooding
Floods
Frame analysis
Framing
Governance
Infrastructure
Integrated water resources management (IWRM)
Leadership
Participation
Privatization
Problems
Rural areas
Sanitation
Scale issues
Solutions
Stakeholders
Training
Urban areas
Urban water management
Vulnerability
Water management
Water resources
Water resources management
Water shortages
Water supply
Water war
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Summary:We present framings of water issues at three administrative levels in Cochabamba, Bolivia to increase insight of how actors’ perspectives facilitate, obstruct or strengthen suggested actions or solutions. Participatory vulnerability assessments were conducted with leaders in one peri-urban community and municipal and regional officials in water-related sectors. Actors framed water problems and potential solutions differently, placing blame most often at other levels of responsibility. While all pointed to the municipality as responsible for solving the most acute water problems, it was acknowledged that the municipality consistently underperforms in its responsibilities. All actors promoted concrete and detailed technical measures as solutions to many problems while governance-related ones such as training and increased cooperation between different levels were only discussed at an abstract level. While fiscal federalism would fit some of the suggested management solutions, issues such as ecosystem protection and flooding with cross-border externalities might require shared yet clearly defined responsibilities between different levels. We suggest that the water war of 2000 and the framings that emerged from it have so strongly impacted the current water management situation that alternative management models and solutions are rarely discussed.
ISSN:1366-7017
1996-9759
1996-9759
DOI:10.2166/wp.2017.050