Water Wars on South America’s Pacific Coast

Abstract

Abstract: After the War of the Pacific (1879–1883), the Silala Basin, arguably one of the most hydropolitically vulnerable basins in the world, became a shared resource of Bolivia and Chile. A related issue involved the shared resources of the Lauca River, which rises in Chile before emptying into a salty basin in Bolivia. Over the decades, Bolivia and Chile unsuccessfully explored tying the Lauca and Silala disputes to Bolivia’s quest for a sovereign Pacific port. The Mauri River dispute between Bolivia and Peru is a third unresolved issue involving shared water resources in South America. All three disputes have impacted the creation and implementation of foreign policy in Bolivia, Chile, and Peru for more than a century. Despite the International Court of Justice’s rulings on two of these disputes, they continue to impact domestic and foreign policies in the region.