Bechtel: The Thirsty Developer

According to their website, Bechtel wants to "build a better world" and is dedicated "to help improve the standard of living and the quality of life". Founded in 1898, Bechtel is one of the world's premier engineering, construction, and project management companies. Their 41,000 employees are teamed with customers, partners, and suppliers on a wide range of projects in nearly 60 countries. Their revenues exceed $14 billion annually. So let's see how they built a better world in Bolivia...

Bechtel is thirsty. I believe they have been since 1898. Any good multinational corporation is thirsty. They can't wait to drink up the resources and plunder the markets of third world nations--that's called good business. In 1999, a Bechtel subsidiary took over control of the water system of Bolivia’s third largest city, Cochabamba. Within weeks, the company doubled and tripled water rates for the poor. Mothers living on minimum wage of $60 per month were ordered to pay $15 or more just to keep water running out of the tap. Faced with a choice between water or food, people took to the streets to demand that rates be lowered. Bechtel’s representatives refused and the Bolivian government called out soldiers to protect the contract. One man, Victor Hugo Daza, was shot in the face and killed. More than a hundred others were seriously wounded. Bechtel’s water takeover in Bolivia and the popular revolt against it has become an international poster child for the excesses of economic globalization. Click here for more information on the Bolivian Water Wars.

Guess what? Bechtel just happens to be in Iraq at the moment rebuilding everything the U.S. destroyed in Gulf War II. This includes assessing and repairing selected power, municipal water, and sewage systems; dredging, repairing, and upgrading the Port of Umm Qasr; rehabilitating selected schools, clinics, and fire stations; reconstructing three key bridges; constructing a key rail line; restoring telephone service to more than 200,000 Baghdad subscribers; and restoring Iraq's main 2,000-kilometer, north-south fiber optic communications backbone. On January 6, 2004, USAID awarded Bechtel a second contract known as Iraq Infrastructure II, a major USAID program of engineering, procurement, and construction services for a series of new infrastructure projects in Iraq. This contract runs from January 2004 through December 2005 with a total value of up to $1.8 billion. I guess Bechtel has learned how to nab government contracts from the master of all developers, that leviathan known as Haliburton.