Bolivia opens new dam as rainy season approaches

Bolivia is ramping up investment in water projects ahead of the approaching rainy season as the government seeks to store water for the 2019 dry season.

The government inaugurated an 18mn-boliviano (US$2.5mn) dam in Potosí department's Tinguinpaya municipality that is designed to irrigate 173ha of farmland, benefitting 217 families.

President Evo Morales' government has invested 13.7bn bolivianos in the water sector since 2006, more than tripling the amount spent in 1997-2005, according to the environment and water ministry.

Morales, who declared a national emergency and sacked his top water officials for failing to warn the government about the lack of supply in late 2016, is accelerating potable water and sewerage projects after the country's worst drought in half a century forced state utility Epsas to restrict services in La Paz, a city of 800,000 residents.

The eastern Andean region over the past two years suffered the effects of both global warming and the La Niña phenomenon, where cooler ocean temperatures cause drought in the highlands. Morales is seeking US$500mn in international emergency aid to invest in potable water and irrigation infrastructure.

In other water-related news, work got underway on a World Bank watershed management program in three watersheds in Cochabamba department, the ministry said.

The 10.9mn-boliviano project involves hydraulic works, reforestation and soil conservation in the Arenales, Mokontullo and Moyapampa river watersheds, benefitting more than 4,500 families, the ministry said in a statement.

The project is being financed by the World Bank's Climate Investment Fund (CIF), which aims to help impoverished communities to cope with climate change.