What Is Cochabamba Privatization

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Prior to privatization, the water works of Cochabamba were controlled by the state agency SEMAPA. After pressure from the World Bank, the Bolivian government put SEMAPA up for auction for privatization but not capitalization. Only one party was willing to bid on the project. This was the Aguas Del Tunari consortium. The consortium was comprised of six companies, International Water Ltd (WL), which was a subsidiary of US based Betchel Corporation with a 55% share. International water limited then became International Water Holdings headquartered in Netherlands after Betchel sold its 50% share to Edison of Italy (Beltran 18). The second partner was a Spanish company Abengoa, which had 25% shareholding. Four Bolivian partners (ICE Agua Energiya,