Regional Strike

The Peruvian congress has recently passed a bill that will permit the central government to charge for the use of water, including water delivered by local irrigation systems. This despite the fact that many of these systems have been communal property (and managed effectively by local communities) for, often, hundreds of years. If I understand the issue correctly (and I might not), I think this is another example of radical market fundamentalism--the government seems to believe that the introduction of a pricing mechanism will solve the problem of water under the current system.

What the problem is, I'm not sure--the absence of irrigation infrastructure and rural public investment in general seems to be a much bigger issue than the fact that the peasants get their water for free.

This seems to be a story about electoral politics as well. The APRA (party of the current president) doesn't get much support in the rural sierra, where these things will hit the peasant population hard. But they might have much to gain, economically, by charging for the use of this water.

I'm a fan of markets, but this is probably not the way to introduce them, in places so poor that every dollar spent on water will be a couple days' worth of food lost for the kids.

So the peasants are striking and blocking the roadways. Sometimes, these things fail to materialize, but it sounds like there will be a regional transportation strike today and tomorrow. So I'll be in Cusco for a while yet. I'm itching to get going, but I suppose if I have to be caught somewhere, it might as well be here, in the bellybutton of the world.