Bolivia invests in water projects to ward off drought

The Bolivian government inaugurated potable water projects on the outskirts of the capital as drought spreads around the landlocked country.

The projects included a series of wells that will provide 120l/sec of water in El Alto, a district above La Paz, according to state Radio Patria Nueva. State water utility Epsas had to restrict water services due to severe drought last year in La Paz, a highland city of 800,000 inhabitants.

This year, reservoirs in La Paz and El Alto have almost tripled water levels to 23Mm3 compared to 8.5Mm3 last year, vice-president Alvaro García Linera said.

"After a year, the result is overwhelmingly positive," García Linera said in broadcast comments. "We won't suffer for lack of water again."

The inauguration came after the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the South Korean government earlier this month approved a total of US$75mn in loans for potable water projects in Bolivia. Drought has destroyed over 15,000 cattle and 33,000ha of crops over the past two months in 51 municipalities in Potosí, Cochabamba, Chuquisaca, Tarija and Santa Cruz departments.

President Evo Morales, who declared a national emergency and sacked his top water officials last year for failing to warn the government about the lack of water supply, is accelerating potable water and sewerage projects after the country battled its worst drought in half a century in late 2016.

The government, which completed the US$146mn Misicuni reservoir in March, has invested an additional 980mn bolivianos (US$142mn) in potable water and irrigation systems over the past decade, according to the environment and water ministry.

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

Developed nations should pay for the cost of climate change and create an environmental court of justice, Morales told the One Planet Summit in Paris, urging governments to manage a global environment fund that aims to raise US$100bn to fight climate change.

"How can they privatize these funds? Capitalism can't solve a crisis caused by capitalism," Morales said in broadcast comments at the summit. "To try to use this system to solve climate change is like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse."