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Abstract
The poor in most cities in developing countries suffer from a lack of infrastructure and services. Those living in self-help settlements often bear the brunt of the problem: paying high prices to receive water from informal suppliers and facing major problems getting to work on public transport. By the general standards of cities in Africa, Asia and Latin America, however, most poor people in Bogotá fare rather well. However, this was not always the case and the article describes how the city authorities, through a mixture of public and private enterprise, turned the servicing situation round. Today, the poor benefit from Bogotá’s virtually complete electricity, water and sewerage coverage. Of course, there are still problems: particularly in terms of affordability and, in the future, from the continued growth of the city beyond the current administrative border.
Notes
1. This article will confine itself to the provision of physical services and will not talk about critical issues like education, health and security.
2. BCV surveys report 99–100% coverage for the whole period since 1998 for electricity, water, sewerage and rubbish collection. There are no definitive figures on the number of households living in new settlements that are yet to be recognised by the urban authorities and therefore not recorded in official figures but the number is likely to be less than 1% of the total DC population.
3. The EAB claims that Bogotá is the only city in Colombia with a drainage system.
4. These are particularly poor areas of the city. They are also located some distance from the city centre and many areas are on highly undulating terrain.
5. In 2010, 92% of homes in the city had access to a cell phone (IPSOS Citation2010). The Ministry of Communications reports that the number of mobile phones in Colombia increased from 254,000 in 1995 to over 30 million in 2007.
6. In 2010, 54% had access to the Internet at home and 80% to cable television (IPSOS Citation2010).
7. Inaugurated in 2000, the three existing trunk routes now carry 1.4 million passengers on a typical working day. The system is widely admired outside Bogotá although subject to criticism by its users because of one symptom of its success, overcrowding (Gilbert Citation2008). The ‘war of the centavo’ is the local jargon for the way bus drivers compete for fares by stopping for passengers anywhere and often driving dangerously.
8. The unfortunate consequence of this success is that most bogotanos criticise it severely because of overcrowding in the stations and on the buses.
9. Mayor Samuel Moreno promised Bogotá a metro in his electoral campaign of 2007. Plans are underway to build one line of 25 kilometres, construction of which is expected to begin in 2012.
10. Private cars and taxis are allowed to drive only on certain days of the week.
11. The first elected mayor took office in 1988. Initially, the term of office was 2 years, but was extended between 1992 and 2003 to 3 years and since 2004 the mandate has been 4 years. Before 1988, the mayor was appointed by the national president.
12. The performance of government is recorded every year by a large survey conducted by Bogotá Como Vamos. This survey shows that since 1998 (when the survey began), most bogotanos have had increasing faith in the competence of the local administration. However, the accusations of corruption against Mayor Moreno and his administration (in November 2010) suggest that the great improvements in the quality of administration that took place after 1992 cannot be assumed to be a permanent feature of the city's government.
13. For example, less than half of Mexico City's 20 million or so inhabitants live in the Federal District, with the majority living in 59 different municipalities located in the State of Mexico and one in the State of Hidalgo (Pradilla and Sodi Citation2006: 254–255).
14. Between 1968 and 1988, the World Bank lent $252 million to water agencies in Colombia, of which $132 million went to Bogotá in three major loans. The electricity company borrowed on a still larger scale.
15. Indeed it had only been set up in 1959 as a means of avoiding total paralysis in the event of a strike organised by the 36 private operators (Rodríguez and Núñez Citation2003, p. 258).
16. Quotation from an interview conducted by the author that made particular reference to the administration of Fabio Puyo, someone who was later found guilty of corruption while head of the company. I have not provided a name of the source because I gave all of my interviewees the assurance that I would not name them in my subsequent publications.
17. The water company's major Chingaza project also suffered major delays when two contractors could not cope with geological conditions and the scale of the project had to be severely pruned.
18. Private investors now own 11.6% of the shares, with the rest remaining in the hands of the District.
19. An act for which FECODE (the teachers’ union) have never forgiven him.
20. Today CODENSA has 944 employees and 5785 subcontracted through other companies (SINALTRAINAL Citation2008).
21. Privatisation of water in particular has been very unpopular in most parts of Latin America (Loftus and McDonald Citation2001; Nickson and Vargas Citation2002; Pírez Citation2002; Budds and McGranahan Citation2003; Crabtree Citation2005; Fay Citation2005).
22. They compared the total value paid to operators during the first year, US $19.8 million, with the total cost of contracts and direct costs incurred by EAAB for the same activities during 2002, estimated at US $29.0 million.
23. A national law that attempted to increase investment in water services across the country and to rationalise subsidy policy (Gilbert Citation2007).
24. In the United Kingdom, 3% of disposable household income is the affordability threshold for water.
25. The average monthly consumption of water per customer in level one in 2005 was 10.87 m2 and the charge for that water and the equivalent sewerage in 2010 was $14,389. A single minimum salary including the transport subsidy is $485,000. For level two, the equivalent figure is more worrying: 6.68%. Of course, some households will certainly be earning more than one minimum salary.
26. The BCV survey for 2010 shows that 39% of households had suffered from economic hardship during the previous year and 41% said that the first bill they chose not to pay was for their service charges.
27. Their estimate is based on a definition of Greater Bogotá that includes the DC, Cajicá, Chía, Cota, Funza, La Calera, Madrid, Mosquera, Sibaté and Soacha.
28. Author's calculations of urbanised area based on data in Torres (Citation2009, p. 109).
29. A judgement somewhat clouded by the current accusations against Mayor Moreno – see note 12.
30. In 2005, Soacha had had 100 mayors in 100 years – hardly a testament to continuity of governance.
31. Most of the neighbouring municipalities are run by mayors from different political factions to that in power in the Capital District. Similarly, the governor is almost always from a different political faction than the Mayor of Bogotá. Of course, that was not a problem in 1954 because General Rojas Pinilla held power nationally, and his dictatorial powers meant that the objections of the local municipalities could be overridden.
32. Bogotá is located on the eastern edge of a large plain – the Sabana – which allows it to expand outwards in three directions with no physical constraint.
33. The current mayor belongs to the Polo Democrático, whereas the governor of Cundinamarca is a Liberal. The former was an opponent of President Uribe, the latter was an ally.
34. Alvaro Uribe's presidential mandate ended in August 2010 and he was replaced by his former Defence Minister, Juan Manuel Santos.
35. It remains to be seen if the administration of the new president, Juan Manuel Santos, will be as sympathetic as that of Alvaro Uribe.
36. At least when exporting to Venezuela is once again permitted (President Chávez prohibited imports from Colombia in 2009).
37. Fortunately, Bogotá has a lower incidence of poverty than most other Colombian cities.
38. The BCV survey for 2010 shows that 39% of households had not suffered from economic hardship and 41% said that the first bill not to be paid was that for their service charges.
39. According to a study conducted in 2003: 1,025,836 road vehicles cross the city of which 205,959 are licensed in Cundinamarca (20.1%), and 139,819 in other departments (13.6%), … the remaining 680,058 are registered in Bogotá (Personería de Bogotá Citation2003). Of course, Mayor Peñalosa tried unsuccessfully to introduce tolls on the roads entering the city.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Alan Gilbert
Alan Gilbert is professor emeritus at University College London. He has published extensively on housing, poverty and urban problems in developing countries, particularly those in Latin America. He has authored nine books, edited four others and written more than one hundred and fifty academic articles. He also acts as an adviser to international institutions including the Inter-American Development Bank and UN-HABITAT.