Bolivia is among the poorest and least developed nations in Latin America. Although the

country’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth measured 4 percent in 2007, inflation reached double-digit figures that same year. Unemployment remains widespread, and an estimated 60 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

Bolivia offers one of the most striking examples of government power devolution to the municipal level. Large-scale decentralization has been ongoing since the early1990s. Infrastructure related to education, health, roads, and solid waste – among other services – is now the responsibility of local governments. This transition to greater responsibility has challenged many municipalities that lack the resources and technical expertise to manage these services.

 

Waste management challenges. The city of Cochabamba – situated in the middle of an inter-Andean valley – is a fragile and vulnerable urban area with a population of more than 600,000. The city produces 400 tons of solid waste each day. The material is transported to the K’ara K’ara dumpsite, 10 km outside the city, where informal low-income settlements have developed. Physical, environmental, social, and operational conditions at the K’ara K’ara dump are harsh. Groundwater, air, and soil contamination pose serious health risks for the people working on and living around the dumpsite,

as well as for residents in Cochabamba.

 

Approximately 1,000 people make meagre livings by collecting from the dump and from city garbage containers. Approximately 80 percent of these waste pickers are women of indigenous origin who are also migrants from rural areas.

Led by the Society for Environmental Management Bolivia (Sociedad de Gestión Ambiental Boliviana, SGAB-conseil), this project aims to improve the poor population’s living conditions through better solid waste management. In order to achieve this, the research work will focus on reducing the pollution produced by the garbage dumpsite and dignify the life and work of the poor, most marginalized population living nearby the dumpsite, especially waste scavengers, by improving the environmental and economic services they provide to the city through the retrieval of reusable material from the solid waste.

The Cochabamba project has placed particular importance to outreach and dissemination of their work to a wide audience, including general public, policy makers and members of parliament. In this regard, the Cochabamba team has gained access to national TV, newspapers, and other media to place the topic on the public agenda.

 

The project team has approached and work successfully with the national TV to raise awareness about their activities and to gain the support of the target population for specific aspects of the research work, where the active participation of the households was crucial.  One of the initial activities of the project was to prepare a diagnosis study that included obtaining primary data on the composition and volume of the waste generated by the City. In order to obtain the primary data, the research team carried out a pilot experience of classification of garbage at source in the Bella Vista  neighborhood, engaging 400 families as the sample. The following link presents 7 TV interviews[1] given by Gregory Paz, the project leader, where he explains what the experience would be about and what was expected from the households in terms of response and support.  It should be mentioned that the pilot experience was very successful because it had good and positive responses and active participation from the households in the neighborhood. This suggests that the primary information provided for their work was relevant and well targeted

 

 

A recent article was published about the Project in “Los Tiempos” – a Bolivian newspaper. The article entitled: “Pilot Project shows that Cochabamba can recycle” can be downloaded below.

 

 

 

El Porvenir is an association of women producing gift cards (Asociación de Tarjeteras El Porvenir). It is composed of a group of waste picker indigenous women that was initiated and nurtured by the FC project, as part of the work within its gender component. This group of women has been trained to use different types of recycled materials, and has managed to successfully commercialize gift cards (including Christmas cards) and bags made from recycled flour and rice bags. See Cards catalogue: http://www.sgab-bolivia.org/pdf/catalogo%20de%20tarjetas.pdf  

 

The “El Porvenir” Association has also successfully commercialized 500 bags made from recycled fabric that will be used by Bolivian Airline (BoA) to promote their services. The employees of the airline will hand the bags to passengers as souvenirs from the company.

The TV interview with the manager of the airline and the FC project researcher can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IiQmvdrIkY

From the interview, (Spanish language) we learn that 60 families are benefitting from this initiative. The FC researcher explains how the women make the bags, from flour and rice bags and other fabrics that have been recuperated and reused. She makes special reference to the importance for these women to generate income through a dignified work. The airline CEO also tells us about the use they will make of these “special” bags.

 

 

Recognition from the Bolivian Parliament

Finally, the Cochabamba team has approached members of the Bolivian parliament in order to profile the “Integrated Solid Waste Management system” in the Parliament Agenda. They have had several presentations and meetings with members of parliament, in particular with those sitting on the Commission on Sustainable Development. Last June 5^th 2009, on the World Environment Day, the Cochabamba FC project team received a Recognition from the Bolivian Parliament for their work on solid waste management for the City. (http://web.idrc.ca/upe/ 

Currently (mid August 2009) the project team together with the Bolivian Parliament is organizing a National Symposium on Solid Waste Management in order to advance the technical aspects of new Ordinances related to management of Solid Waste at municipal levels. This symposium will take place in October 2009.

 

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The Cochabamba Focus City project has a complete and updated website (in Spanish), where all project advances, online publications of the project outputs, research results and in particular their communication and dissemination activities are available.  In the tab “Publicaciones” they have their bulletins and results from their research studies, some of which are available in English.