My own personal water war, resolved.

Interesting trivia - Cochabamba put itself on the map during the "water war" of 2000 when US company Bechtel privatized the water, the people protested, and eventually the people won and the privatization of water ended. A Hollywood movie came out about it called 'Tambien la Lluvia' starring Gael Garcia Bernal. It has received good reviews. . . You can google it if you want, because my post has nothing to do with it - I just figured it would be a good plug to get people to know a bit about the country I currently call 'home'. Ha.

No, no. My water war has been with my landlords. When I moved into the apartment, they said that I would have to pay water and electric in addition to rent, which seemed fine. What I did not realize was that there wasn't a meter for the water that I was using. This didn't particularly bother me until my landlady knocked on my door one afternoon and told me that I owed 'x' amount of bolivianos for water. Huh. I asked to see the bill, and she showed it to me - a handwritten note from the city water department, which indicated that the amount of water was for the whole house. Since her family also lived on-site, she was paying the majority of the bill and I didn't make a huge stink about the fact that she was basically pulling a number out of nowhere. Then they took on more renters.The water charges I was paying her turned into a crazy amount (Bolivian standards, not US). The new renters had 4 adults and a young child, but only had to pay a fraction more for water than I did, a singleton who was barely ever home. I must've complained enough to my community here because they encouraged me to TALK to my landlady about it vs. saying it was fine when clearly I had issues with the entire process. Confrontation is not my strongest suit, but one day when she knocked on my door, I was sort of prepared to start a conversation. It went something like this:
"Lorena, I just charged Rosa Bs. XX  for water, your share is Bs. XX and I will pay the rest."
Silence on my part; I was thinking and giving her a look. Then - 
"Nelly, will you please explain to me the process you use to calculate how much you are charging each unit in this building?"
Silence on Nelly the landlady's part. For whatever reason this was oddly encouraging, because from the look on her face, I knew I had stumped her.
"What I need to know is why I am being charged 'X' amount. Perhaps if I understand your calculations, it will be clearer to me."
Silence. Her mouth opened but no response came out. I waited another 10 seconds before I went on.
"It doesn't make sense to me that I live by myself, am gone almost all the time, and pay XX while Rosa and her family are here the majority of the time and pay almost the same amount. Do you see why I am asking you how you are calculating costs?"
Nelly found her voice.
"Well, I really don't have a process. I pay the most because my family is biggest, then Rosa pays XX and you pay XX."
"Yes, I see. However, Rosa is also home all day, flushing toilets, washing clothes for the entire family, cooking, cleaning, etc. and using more water than I am. Do you see why I cannot understand why you charge me almost the same amount as her?"
To which Nelly became really frustrated and said, "Fine. Just pay me whatever you want to pay."
Not the point I was trying to make, but I had made a stand and I thought I had gotten my point across. This was late last year. When I got back from my vacation in the States, Nelly came to my door one day in March to ask for money for water. (Occasionally our tank runs out of water and we have to buy it off of water trucks that lumber up and down the avenue, which is a cost separate from city water.) She said that she would pay for half, that Rosa had paid XX and that I owed her the rest. It was the same *non* process as before. I just looked at her for a few seconds and it was like she knew what I was thinking because she said something like, "I can't ask Rosa to pay any more that I already have." And since I was too tired to get into again, I decided to pay her and be done with it.
Fast forward to tonight: My rent was due, plus Nelly the landlady needed to hand over my electric bill. She had also mentioned last week that she had the water bill and she would be visiting me to settle accounts. When she arrived at my door, she had a basic spreadsheet in her hand that laid out a process for calculating water bill costs! Hallelujah! I was prideful enough to think that I had inspired this change. Wroo-oooong - Nelly said that her daughter, who recently entered university level studies in engineering, told her that THEY were paying too much for water and devised a system that was more equal and just for all parties concerned. And it is. I just hope that it lasts. I am sure Rosa has become rather accustomed to her cheap water bills and may protest. Better her than me!
All in all, it was a nice present. :)