The conditions for the reproduction of the SAGUAPAC water cooperative in the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia: discourse analysis

Abstract

The SAGUAPAC cooperative in the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Eastern Bolivia) is regularly presented as an example of cooperative successes regarding water supply and sanitation. Its efficiency, both economic and technical, is widely considered as the main reason for its reproduction. However, without denying its importance, we show, through a discourse analysis from and about SAGUAPAC in local media, that moral and non-instrumental factors are crucial in the reproduction of the cooperative. These factors create attachment and affection toward the cooperative, through a storytelling technique using a four-dimensional rhetoric (mythification, identification, emotionalisation and personification). This storytelling technique, internalized in the local media discourse and materializing the so-called new spirit of capitalism, exploits the affects and instrumentalises local myths and legends, as well as the ‘camba’ ethnic identity. In that, it tends to retain SAGUAPAC members and to canvass new ones, by providing them with recognition in their quality of local community members. However, the mobilisation of social norms and power hierarchies might end up reinforcing the social exclusion of Andean non-camba immigrants, inspite of an a priori inclusive and democratic organisation of the cooperative.

Community water governance for urban water security in the Global South: Status, lessons, and prospects

“…National decentralization programs implemented since the 1990s in many developing countries also emerged as CWG catalysts (Adams & Zulu, 2015; Baud & Nainan, 2008; Behailu et al, 2015; Bétrisey, 2015). They reflect a recognition that universal water coverage cannot be achieved in these countries without decentralization and community involvement in service delivery, notwithstanding the complicating and sometimes controversial political dimensions, and the nature and quality/effectiveness, of both decentralization and participation.…”

“…Urban water cooperatives, while varying across contexts, were more common in South America (Bétrisey, 2015; Nickson, 1998; Poupeau & Hardy, 2017). For example, in La Paz–El Alto, Bolivia, cooperatives were commonplace, and families often chose one among several to join as member or to procure water from (Poupeau & Hardy, 2017).…”

“…In La Paz–El Alto, Bolivia, inactive members who fail to attend cooperative meetings are made to buy water at the higher price set for nonmembers (Poupeau & Hardy, 2017). To attract donors, draw more funding, and compete with larger cooperatives, smaller or informal cooperatives might come together to form a federation (Bétrisey, 2015).…”

“…Despite the community label, expectations of equity, and pro‐poor claims of CWG, several studies reported how sociopolitical factors including political interference, elite capture of benefits, corruption, institutional opaqueness, clannism, and gender‐ and ethnicity‐based segregation power inequities that resulted in marginalization and exclusion, and relative winners and losers within communities, creating more intractable threat to CWG sustenance than technical and financial challenges (Adams et al, 2018; Ananga et al, 2018; Bétrisey, 2015; Cheng, 2013; Schwartz & Sanga, 2010; Velzeboer et al, 2018) that need continuing experimentation. Unattended, unequal intracommunity power relations often undermined community participation.…”

“…In Venezuela, political favoritism affected membership in community‐water interventions (McMillan et al, 2014). In Cameroon, conflict between native and nonnative residents often resulted in the exclusion of nonnatives (Bétrisey, 2015; Njoh, 2002). In Kisumu, Kenya, members of certain ethnicities were mistreated or excluded from benefits.…”