because their diet is inadequate. 11. The Special Rapporteur found that the reason why many altiplano families are so poor is because the prices they receive for their crops are often below the cost of production. Unable to afford transport to markets, most are therefore dependent on intermediary traders who come to the villages with a truck to buy their milk or crops, but pay extremely low prices, while making large profits by selling the products in the cities.[11] The lack of transport for many remote families, widely dispersed across the altiplano is a serious obstacle to food security, as is the lack of inputs that would allow them to better utilize the land. Altiplano farming families are also vulnerable to a very uncertain climate. Whole crops can be wiped out by one heavy frost, hailstorm or summer drought. Climate change and the El Niño phenomenon appear to be causing an increase in extreme climatic events, with less rain and higher temperatures affecting productivity.[12] The Special Rapporteur and his team spoke with Aymara families of Jintamarca near Guaqui, close to Lake Titicaca, who lost their entire potato crop after three days of heavy frost. As this is their staple food, they worried how they would survive and how they would be able to afford seeds to plant for the next harvest. 12. The harsh agricultural conditions, and past failures to invest in small-scale agriculture, account for the rapid urbanization of Bolivia, as millions have migrated to the cities, or abroad. Many also leave the land to toil in Bolivia’s mineral mines - the Special Rapporteur saw at first hand the intolerable working conditions in the cooperative mines of Oruro, where both men and women miners work long shifts. Others leave in search of new lands in the tropical hills or lowlands of the Yungas and the valleys. These migrants or colonizadores clear small patches of forest for subsistence agriculture, growing crops adapted to the warmer climate, including yuca, rice, maize, bananas, cacao, coffee and coca. However, efforts to eradicate coca have also been accompanied by much violence and have angered many indigenous Bolivians, who see coca eradication not only as depriving them of livelihoods when the alternatives are bleak, but also as an attack on their cultural heritage. 13. The difficult conditions of subsistence agriculture stand in strong contrast to the modern agro-industrial plantations and cattle ranches that dominate Bolivia’s eastern lowlands. Whilst the vast majority of small farmers have low-quality landholdings of between less than half a hectare and five hectares, landholdings in the Oriente are characterized by huge extensions of over 5,000 hectares, concentrated in the hands of a few powerful families. These extensions are highly developed, often highly mechanized and are focused on export-oriented agricultural production, including soya, sugar cane, sunflower oils and cattle. Mechanization means that these extensions provide much lower employment than small-scale farming and agricultural labourers are paid very low and insecure wages.[13] The Special Rapporteur was shocked to hear that many agricultural workers on large estates still work in feudal conditions of semi-slavery, or debt-bondage, particularly the Guaraní indigenous population of the Chaco. According to the Defensor del Pueblo, these workers are held in debt bondage or bound by duties to landholders and do not receive salaries for their work. 14. Although Bolivia does not suffer from a shortage of land,[14] inequalities in landholdings have been a key factor in deepening social conflict across the country. The vast majority of poor small-scale farmers together own only 1.4 per cent of the cultivated land, while the wealthiest 7 per cent of Bolivian landlords own 85 per cent of the cultivated land.[15] Although a 1953 agrarian reform programme broke up the traditional feudalistic haciendas in the highlands and the valleys, this system re-emerged in the eastern lowlands as huge tracts of land were granted to powerful political supporters of the regimes in power between the 1960s and the 1990s.[16] Inequalities of land ownership are particularly high in the southern state of Tarija, where 92 per cent of land is owned by 8 per cent of agricultural producers, while 80 per cent of the region’s campesinos have no land title.[17] In the eastern lowlands, lands have been granted to indigenous peoples within the Tierra Comunitaria de Orígen (TCO) framework, but this has also been complicated and has not always provided secure tenure, given overlapping claims by settlers and large landowners which have generated further conflict. 15. Bolivia is also frequently faced with natural disaster. Many people interviewed by the Special Rapporteur suggested that Bolivia is increasingly affected by unpredictable natural disasters as a result of climate change. In early 2007, Bolivia faced its worst floods in 25 years. Whilst drought, hail and freezing temperatures devastated staple crops in the highlands, torrential rains and overflowing rivers caused serious floods in eight of Bolivia’s nine departments, resulting in the deaths of 54 people and affecting the lives and livelihoods of over 450,000 people.[18] In the worst affected areas in Beni and Santa Cruz, at least 71,000 hectares of crops were destroyed and more than 11,000 cattle were lost in the rising water; at least 16,000 people were displaced from their homes in Santa Cruz. The Government declared a national emergency on 18 January 2007 and requested support from the international community on 7 February 2007. At the time of the visit of the Special Rapporteur, the floods had mostly receded, but thousands of people were left to rebuild their homes and livelihoods. 16. Millions of Bolivians continue to lack access to safe drinking water, as well as water for subsistence agriculture. The situation is particularly severe in rural areas, where up to 43 per cent of the population has no access to safe drinking water and 75 per cent have no sanitation,[19] the vast majority of whom are indigenous peoples.[20] The quality of existing drinking water is also problematic, given a continued lack of adequate water treatment. Water privatization under Bolivia’s previous administrations aimed to improve the water quality and provision but gave rise to serious social conflict. In Cochabamba, water prices rose by 100-200 per cent just weeks after a private, foreign-owned company, Aguas del Tunari owned by the London-based multinational International Water Ltd took over the concession.[21] For many families, this meant that up to half of their monthly income went on paying for water. Massive public protests broke out in February 2000, but the then President declared martial law and called for a state of emergency for 90 days. During this period, most civil rights were suspended, permitting the arrest and confinement of protesters without a warrant, restrictions on travel and political activity and a curfew, banning gatherings of more than four people and severely limiting freedom of the press. After persistent public protests, the Government was forced to back down and to break its contract with Aguas del Tunari. In a similar case of privatization in El Alto, a concession of Aguas del Illimani to the Suez des Eaux multinational company was halted in 2007, following widespread protests after communities were deprived of access to sufficient water as a result of increases in water prices and connection fees. B. Social crisis and recent developments in Bolivia 17. The recent social crisis in Bolivia has its roots in a long history of extreme poverty and social exclusion of the majority of