The Big Political and Legal Stakes of a Feud Over a Tiny South American River

The Big Political and Legal Stakes of a Feud Over a Tiny South American River
A Quechua indigenous person walks beside the stream of the Silala River, Potosi, Bolivia, March 28, 2013 (AP photo by Juan Karita).

Earlier this month, Bolivian President Evo Morales publicly berated his Chilean counterpart, Michelle Bachelet, for allegedly disclosing the contents of a filing before the International Court of Justice in The Hague concerning the two countries’ battle over the Silala River. It was just the latest flare-up in a dispute that has further poisoned relations between the South American neighbors. In an email interview, Chrisopher Rossi, an adjunct faculty member at the University of Iowa College of Law who has published detailed accounts of this dispute in the Stanford Journal of International Law and the Inter-American Law Review, explains the two countries’ positions and the case’s implications for other water conflicts.

WPR: What are the origins of the dispute between Chile and Bolivia over the Silala River, and what’s at stake for both countries?

Christopher Rossi: The Silala is an 8.5-kilometer waterway formed by groundwater springs in Bolivia. It flows for 4 kilometers before entering Chile. Bolivia granted a Chilean mining concessionaire rights to extract the water in 1908. The concessionaire blasted out canals that Bolivia claims adulterated the flow of the water. If allowed to return to its pre-1908 condition, Bolivia claims the water would pool in place and never enter into Chile.

Keep reading for free!

Get instant access to the rest of this article by submitting your email address below. You'll also get access to three articles of your choice each month and our free newsletter:

Or, Subscribe now to get full access.

Already a subscriber? Log in here .

What you’ll get with an All-Access subscription to World Politics Review:

A WPR subscription is like no other resource — it’s like having a personal curator and expert analyst of global affairs news. Subscribe now, and you’ll get:

  • Immediate and instant access to the full searchable library of tens of thousands of articles.
  • Daily articles with original analysis, written by leading topic experts, delivered to you every weekday.
  • Regular in-depth articles with deep dives into important issues and countries.
  • The Daily Review email, with our take on the day’s most important news, the latest WPR analysis, what’s on our radar, and more.
  • The Weekly Review email, with quick summaries of the week’s most important coverage, and what’s to come.
  • Completely ad-free reading.

And all of this is available to you when you subscribe today.

More World Politics Review