Bolivia asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Wednesday to declare that country's sovereign right over the waters of the Silala River, in its counterclaim as part of its dispute with Chile before that court.
On the penultimate day of verbal arguments before the ICJ in The Hague, the agent (main representative) of the Bolivian side, the diplomat Roberto Calzadilla, asked the court to declare the Bolivian right to the Silala channels that are on its territory.
On these artificial channels, Calzadilla called for recognition of the Bolivian right to decide in a sovereign way when and how to carry out maintenance tasks.
Calzadilla also called on the ICJ to declare Bolivia's sovereignty over the “artificial flow” of Silala waters in its territory, and that “Chile does not have acquired rights” over that water flow.
In addition, the Bolivian diplomat argued, any demand by Chile regarding access to the waters of the Silala River, as well as the conditions and compensation, “are subject to the conclusion of an agreement with Bolivia.”
The ICJ judges will hear Chile's reply to the controversy on Thursday, at the close of the cycle of oral arguments.
The final court decision may still take months or even years, but it is binding and no longer open to appeal.
The day before, the agent of the Chilean delegation, Ximena Fuentes, had asked the ICJ to declare the river system of the Silala River as an “international watercourse”.
He also called for the ICJ to speak out on Chile's right to use “the waters of the Silala river system, in accordance with customary international law.”
This case dates back to 2016, when Chile filed a lawsuit amid another dispute between the two countries before the same ICJ, in which the Bolivian side asked to force the Chilean authorities to negotiate a sovereign exit to the sea.
In 2018, this same court argued that Chile was not “legally obliged to negotiate” an exit to the sea with Bolivia.
In this context, the then president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, threatened to reduce the flow of water from Silala into the Chilean Atacama desert and to impose tariffs for its use.
Throughout the written pleadings phase of the trial between 2016 and 2022, La Paz has assumed part of the first two points of Santiago's claims, that the Silala is an international river and that its sharing must be “equitable and reasonable”. Gone is the accusation of Evo Morales, who in July 2017 accused the neighboring country of “artificially” diverting water resources to its border.
The Silala is a flow of water that springs from Bolivian Potosí springs and crosses the border into Chile in Antofagasta, one of the most arid regions on the planet. The use of this water resource has eroded relations between the two countries over the past twenty years, as Bolivia said in March 2016 that it would sue Chile before the ICJ, but the neighboring country came forward and filed the complaint three months later.
Chile and Bolivia have been at odds for decades over demands on the status of river and sea waters.
Diplomatic relations between the two countries have been broken since 1978, when the last attempt to negotiate Bolivia's access to the Pacific Ocean failed.
With information from AFP and EFE
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