The case for better wastewater treatment in Bolivia

Efficient investment in wastewater and other sanitation services is vital to achieving public health benefits, improving the environment, and enhancing life quality. Safe water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programs are important to prevent disease and protect human health during outbreaks of infectious disease, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the past two decades, Bolivia has made strong strides in expanding access to water and sanitation facilities. Yet, even though access to piped water and wastewater collection has increased, the quality of those services is still not optimal, particularly for the poorer population. Service interruptions and blockages are normal. Also, water quality and wastewater service delivery remains a challenge, particularly in areas facing water scarcity.

Bolivia reports that only 27% of wastewater is treated (WSP, 2016). In cities with over 10,000 inhabitants, wastewater treatment is just 39%. Wastewater treatment facilities need to be upgraded and expanded in cities like El Alto, Oruro, Cochabamba and Tarija; while La Paz, with about 800,000 inhabitants, has no treatment facilities. Instead, untreated wastewater is dumped into the Choqueyapu and La Paz Rivers, further rising water contamination and endangering human health.

Urban ization has greatly increased domestic and industrial water demand in Bolivia, and untreated wastewater is often reused for water-scarce irrigation. Polluted water downstream of the La Paz River is unregulated for irrigation. Yet due to a lack of oversight, its unregulated usage presents potential risks to the health of urban consumers of agricultural products as well as farmers and their families' health.

In order to tackle these problems, the Ministry of Environment and Water (Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Agua-MMAyA) began in 2017 to establish a National Strategy for Wastewater Management and Reuse aimed at addressing both water contamination and public health concerns caused by low rates of wastewater treatment and excessive use in agriculture and at encouraging reuse within a broader framework. The Global Water Protection & Sanitation Partnership (GWSP), a multi-donor trust fund housed in the World Bank's Water Global Program, provided technical assistance to formulate the plan.

To achieve these goals, particularly in La Paz, a wastewater treatment plant is desperately required as well as a network of trunk sewers and emissaries to transport wastewater to the treatment plant itself.

But building a new facility is the beginning. Develop and robustly execute service and maintenance plans to ensure the viability and efficacy of the current La Paz wastewater management program.

Help must also include: I improving policy, structural, regulatory and funding mechanisms for wastewater management; (ii) increasing public awareness of the value and costs of wastewater treatment; (ii) supporting the environmental regeneration of watercourses in the watersheds of Choqueyapu and La Paz to minimize public health;

To close the sanitation gap in Bolivia, it must also go beyond traditional wastewater collection and treatment approaches and explore non-conventional sanitation structures, including off-sewage network approaches and fecal sludge management.

Our expertise in promoting wastewater control, national and global, also shows valuable lessons, including:

Selecting wastewater systems should be based on maximum life-cycle costs (i.e. investment costs, operational and maintenance costs).

The facilities' positive social implications should be considered across the cycle: employment created by the plant's construction, operation, and maintenance; improvements in property prices following improvement of the receiving water body; alternative water sources from reuse for farmers; and improved health from better water quality.

The value of ensuring sufficient ability of utilities to perform and sustain wastewater treatment. The need to ensure that utilities produce adequate revenue to pay for operating and maintenance costs.

Bolivia's WSS field consists of many institutions. For example, MMAyA, the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (Viceministerio de Agua Potable y Saneamiento Basico-VAPSB) and the Department of Water Supplies and Irrigation (Viceministerio de Recursos Hídricos y Riego);

are the sector authorities responsible for water and wastewater policies, technical requirements and budgeting for sector investments when these are priorities. In comparison, local councils are responsible for delivering WSS services.

Municipalities may provide these services directly or through agencies offering basic water and sewerage services (Entidades Prestadoras de Servicios Basicos de Agua y Alcantarillado, EPSAS), which usually join municipal or utility cooperatives in urban areas. Cross-sectoral and multi-stakeholder cooperation is also crucial to Bolivia's wastewater strategy's progress.

To accomplish this, national and local governments and water providers, with funding from the World Bank and other development partners, are working together to integrate circular economic concepts into the design of the wastewater treatment plant in La Paz.

Wastewater can be a valuable resource if there are appropriate policies, technology and financial opportunities. The World Bank stands ready to assist Bolivia in-wastewater treatment and reuse coverage levels to eventually minimize water pollution and achieve environmental recovery, improve people's health, and contribute to building climate resilience in urban agricultural areas.