Water supply and sanitation in Bolivia


Bolivia's drinking water and sanitation coverage has greatly improved since 1990 due to a considerable increase in sectoral investment. However, the country continues to suffer from what happens to be the continent's lowest coverage levels and from low quality of services. Political and institutional instability have contributed to the weakening of the sector's institutions at the national and local levels. Two concessions to foreign private companies in two of the three largest cities—Cochabamba and La Paz/El Alto—were prematurely ended in 2000 and 2006 respectively. The country's second largest city, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, relatively successfully manages its own water and sanitation system by way of cooperatives. The government of Evo Morales intends to strengthen citizen participation within the sector. Increasing coverage requires a substantial increase of investment financing.
According to the government the main problems in the sector are low access to sanitation throughout the country; low access to water in rural areas; insufficient and ineffective investments; a low visibility of community service providers; a lack of respect of indigenous customs; "technical and institutional difficulties in the design and implementation of projects"; a lack of capacity to operate and maintain infrastructure; an institutional framework that is "not consistent with the political change in the country"; "ambiguities in the social participation schemes"; a reduction in the quantity and quality of water due to climate change; pollution and a lack of integrated water resources management; and the lack of policies and programs for the reuse of wastewater.

Access

In 2015, in Bolivia 90% of the total population had access to "improved" water, or 97% and 76%, in urban and rural areas, respectively. Regarding sanitation, 50% of the total population had access to "improved" sanitation, or 61% and 28%, in urban and rural areas, respectively.

Quality of service

The quality of service in the majority of the country's water and sanitation systems is low. In 2000, according to the WHO, in only 26% of the urban systems water was disinfected and only 25% of the collected wastewater was treated.

Recent developments

In the last decades, frequent changes of government resulted in several restructurings of the institutional framework to face the problems of the sector. Consequently, it seems difficult to draw up a long-term continuous and sustainable sector policy.

The 1990s: Privatization and regulation

In 1999, during the second mandate of Hugo Banzer, the sectoral institutional framework law established the legal framework for the sector that is in force today. It allows for private sector participation and formalized SISAB as a regulator. During that period two major concessions for water and sanitation were granted to the private sector: One in La Paz/El Alto to the Aguas de Illimani S.A., a subsidiary of the French Suez in 1997; and a second one in Cochabamba to Aguas de Tunari, a subsidiary of the multinationals Biwater and Bechtel in 1999.
Following two popular uprisings against water privatization, the first in Cochabamba in April 2000 and the second in La Paz/El Alto in January 2005, which centered on natural gas concessions, the two water concessions were terminated. In the latter case, Aguas de Illimani was replaced by the public utility Empresa Pública Social de Agua y Saneamiento, which came under severe criticism in 2008 due to water shortages, accounting errors, tariff increases and poor disaster preparedness. Consequently, representatives of the La Paz neighborhood association announced to create their own service provider.
The Bolivian Norm NB 688, an important technical norm for the design and construction of sewage and sanitation, was revised in 2001. The revised norm permits the installation of more efficient and of lower cost condominial sewerage systems and helps to increase sanitation coverage with limited funds.
Furthermore, the government defined the National Plan for Basic Sanitation Services 2001-2010 to increase the water and sanitation access to improve the quality of service and promote their sustainability.

Evo Morales government: popular participation

In 2006 the MAS won the elections and Evo Morales became president of the Republic. "Water cannot be a private business because it converts it into a merchandise and thus violates human rights. Water is a resource and should be a public service," emphasized president-elect Morales. The new president created the Water Ministry and nominated a leader of the protests in El Alto against Aguas de Illimani as the country's first water minister. He nominated Luis Sánchez-Gómez Cuquerella, who was formerly an activist of the struggle against the privatization in Cochabamba, as vice-minister of Basic Services. In May 2006 the government dissolved the regulatory agency SISAB, saying that it failed to properly regulate tariffs and that it lacked accountability.
The government of Evo Morales considers passing a new water and sanitation services law called “Water for Life”. According to vice-minister Rene Orellana, under this law the legal concept of the concession would be eliminated. A preferential electricity tariff would be introduced for EPSAs and community water rights would be strengthened.
In 2008 the government published a National Basic Sanitation Plan that analyzes the main problems in the sector, puts forward a vision, sets targets and defines the investments needed to achieve the targets. These figures include investments for the reuse of wastewater and to adapt to climate change.

2016 Water Shortages and National Emergency

In November 2016, the worst drought in 25 years led to water rationing in La Paz and El Alto. Various causes were cited for the shortage, which saw the capital's main reservoir level drop to less than 1% capacity. Just two weeks into the crisis, Bolivia's Vice Ministry of Civil Defense estimated that the drought had affected 125,000 families and threatened 290,000 hectares of agricultural land and 360,000 heads of cattle. President Evo Morales called on local governments to devote funds and workers to drill wells and transport water to cities in vehicles, with the support of the armed forces, from nearby bodies of water.
A national state of emergency was declared after 172 of the country's 339 municipalities declared their own emergencies related to the drought.

Responsibilities for water and sanitation

The sector's institutional framework is the Law #2029 of 1999, or Water and Sanitation Services Law, revised in 2000 as Law #2066. As mentioned above in “Recent Developments”, the Morales government is contemplating a new water and sanitation services law, named “Water for Life”.

Policies

Policies are set by the government; within the government the Vice-Ministry of Basic Sanitation in the Ministry of Environment and Water and is in charge of setting water policies. Another Vice-Ministry in the same ministry is in charge of water resources management and irrigation. Before 2006 these sectors were under different ministries, notably the Ministry of Housing and Basic Services and the Ministry of the Environment.

Provision of services

In urban areas, municipal governments are in charge of service provision as well as the development of plans and programs for service expansion in areas under their jurisdiction, in coordination with departmental governments.
In some cities, cooperatives are in charge of water supply and sanitation service provision. SAGUAPAC in Santa Cruz is the largest consumer cooperative utility in the world. According to the World Bank, its performance indicators place it among the best water utilities in Latin America.
The country has 9 departments and 327 municipalities. It also has 14 water and sanitation providers, which are called Empresas Prestadores de Servicios de Agua Potable y Alcantarillado in the largest cities. In 1982, the EPSAs have formed the National Association of Water and Sewage Companies.
In rural areas Juntas or Water Committees are in charge of operating and maintaining the systems. In more dispersed areas of the country it is often the households themselves who take the initiative to obtain access to water and sanitation services, an approach called self-supply of water and sanitation.

Financial aspects

Investment

In the 1980s investment in the sector was below US$20 million per year. Starting in 1990, this average increased to approximately US$40 million. In 1999, when US$69.4 million were invested the annual investment reached its peak. After 2000 investments dropped back again

ImageSize = width:auto height:240 barincrement:40
PlotArea = left:40 right:20 height:200 bottom:20
AlignBars = late
DateFormat = x.y
Period = from:0 till:80.0
TimeAxis = orientation:vertical
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:tan1 increment:10 start:0
PlotData=
color:blue width:15
bar:1996 from:start till:53.7
bar:1997 from:start till:47.4
bar:1998 from:start till:54.1
bar:1999 from:start till:69.4
bar:2000 from:start till:64.5
bar:2001 from:start till:45.0
bar:2002 from:start till:27.9
bar:2003 from:start till:23.0
bar:2004 from:start till:49.6
bar:2005 from:start till:42.4
bar:2006 from:start till:33.4
TextData=
pos: fontsize:M text: Annual investment in water supply and sanitation in million US$

Financing mechanisms

In 2004 the government of President Carlos Mesa defined a new Sectoral Financial Policy. The EPSA would receive credits and transfers for investments for participating in a Plan for Institutional Modernization and establishing an Integral Development Plan. Resources are assigned to each EPSA with priority to those with larger poverty levels and lower levels of coverage, according to a mathematic formula called Asignador Financiero Sectoral. The subsidies are higher and the conditions of loans less onerous to the EPSA with lower coverage and higher levels of poverty. The National Fund for Regional Development is the government's instrument for the targeting of loans destined for water and sanitation investments.
The Foundation for the Support to Sustainable Basic Sanitation channels technical assistance to services to promote their sustainability.

External support

Germany

The water supply issue in Bolivia was the main theme of the James Bond movie Quantum of Solace. The story was based on the Cochabamba Water Revolt.