Proposed dump location puts La Paz water supply 'at risk'

Bolivia's central government and La Paz municipality are at loggerheads over a new location for a waste dump following the collapse of the original one.

The Alpacoma municipal dump in La Paz department collapsed on January 15, pouring 200,000t of garbage and 10Ml of wastewater into two rivers. La Paz municipality's proposed location for the dump in the Patapampa area could pollute the Khaluyo river which flows into the Pampalarama, Chacaltaya and Alpaquita dams that supply potable water to the capital, the environment and water ministry said in a statement.

"The place they propose to build the new waste dump lies 2km from the Khaluyo river ... We've shown that the La Paz water supply would be at risk when the dump starts operating," environment and water minister Carlos Ortuño said. "There could be possible pollution with toxic heavy metals such as lead, arsenic, chrome, mercury and cadmium."

In related news, President Evo Morales pledged to create a state program to extend sewerage services dubbed Mi Alcantarillado as part of a bid to ensure 100% of the population has access to services by 2025. The program will be jointly managed with regional and municipal governments.

The government, which already runs the Mi Agua and Mi Riego programs, has invested 6bn bolivianos (US$840mn) over the past 13 years to nearly double sewerage service coverage to 66% of the population, the environment and water ministry said.

Argentine firm Aetos, meanwhile, won a bidding process to carry out a 4.6mn-boliviano study for a sewerage treatment plant in the eastern city of Tarija, according to the ministry. The six-month study to design a plant to clean up the Guadalquivir river will be financed by IDB.

Work also got underway on a new 10km pipeline from the 124Mm3 Misicuni reservoir in Cochabamba department to supply potable water to Colcapirhua municipality, state news agency ABI reported. The US$24mn pipeline is scheduled to start operating by 2020.

Morales' government has invested 13.669bn bolivianos in the country's water sector since coming to power in 2006, more than tripling the amount spent from 1997-2005, according to the ministry.

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

The Andean region over the past two years has suffered the effects of both global warming and the La Niña phenomenon, when cooler ocean temperatures cause drought in the highlands.