Abstract
Abstract
In the periphery of the city of Cochabamba, many communities are struggling to retain a diversity of options for their livelihoods and are resisting the illegal urbanization of agricultural land as well as the pollution generated by the dumping of most of the city's waste in the area. The struggle is aimed not only at maintaining the agrarian characteristics of the area and reversing environmental harm but also at drafting municipal plans of an alternative vision of the city that goes beyond an urban metropolis built only of cement and bricks. An important element for the realization of that vision is access to sufficient and clean water needed to carry out domestic and productive activities in better conditions.
Introduction
Unplanned urban growth and the resulting invasion of the remaining rural spaces have damaged communities, forcing them to deal with pollution of their water sources among other consequences. In addition to this ongoing process, the lack of municipal plans and projects that take into consideration the particular characteristics of the area leaves the families of these communities without real livelihood options.
What is more, the community of Kara Kara has also had to confront the fact that the municipality built the city's dump in its territory twenty years ago. Now, after decades of harmful environmental impact, the municipality plans to move the dump to the neighboring community of Arrumani. Both communities have been struggling to close the garbage dump and to look for another more appropriate place to open a new site. For Arrumani, this would mean that families could keep their agrarian way of life. For Kara Kara, it may already be too late but they want to at least improve their living conditions. In both cases, access to sufficient and safe water is a priority.
This article describes some of the key elements to understanding the current situation in relation to access to and use of water in the southern part of the city. It will also consider the problems generated by illegal settlements, pollution, and the lack of public policy and investment that together result in the marginalization of the southern zone of the city of Cochabamba.
Discussion
During the second half of the twentieth century, the city of Cochabamba went through an accelerated process of fragmentation that eventually led to a division between the more modern and wealthy northern zone and the southern zone where most of the city's poor live. The disparity between these two zones deepened even more in the 1990s, partially due to continued migration to the southern zone from rural areas and highland mines. Demographic growth in the southern zone was not accompanied by greater municipal investment nor by access to basic services still concentrated in downtown Cochabamba and the expanding northern zone.
According to Rodriguez et al. (2009), one decade after this process, the differentiation between north and south reflects a “classist and racist use of space.” Each zone is conceptualized not only in terms of its geographical position but also in relation to some particular characteristics as so conceived by the people living in a different zone. Thus, the “north” is constructed as the place of the rich and the south as the place of the poor and marginalized that has become an insecure and violent place to live.
Since the incorporation of District 9 into the municipality's territory (1983) (16,000 hectares that represent 48 percent of the total size of Cochabamba), the south has come to be declared the agrarian area of the city by law1 as a significant number of its inhabitants are members of peasant communities and organized in peasant unions. Yet the area's semi-rural and agrarian character is changing rapidly due to uncontrolled and illegal urbanization.
Since the so-called “water war” in 2000, neighborhoods in the southern zone have visibly demonstrated to demand municipal drinking water and sanitation services. This is still one of the biggest problems in the area, and residents have come up with various proposals to address the lack of safe and sufficient water for domestic and productive uses. This explains why there is a growing number of self-managed communitarian and cooperative water systems in the area (the quality of service varies considerably). Water venders are also very important in these areas; they come with water tanks aboard trucks to supply people with drinking water, although it is difficult to access homes serviced by poor roads. The majority of families in this area have to pay four times more for their water than wealthier families with access to municipal water in the northern part of the city.
In District 9, only 20 percent of families have access to sanitation services. Thus most residents are forced to use other methods to dispose of their wastewater even though the city's wastewater treatment plant is located in the area. This situation is also affecting the quality of both surface and groundwater in the district, making water access even more unreliable.
The lack of access to safe water is exacerbated by the fact that the southern zone is home to two of the city's hazardous water sites: the Kara Kara landfill and the Albarrancho wastewater treatment plant. Numerous studies have been conducted on these facilities' effects on the health of neighboring residents but very little has been done to address the problems they cause. In spite of this situation, agrarian communities in District 9 have been able to continue with some of their productive activities (agriculture and dairy production, for example) but it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to continue to do so. This limits not only the possibilities for families to have diversified livelihoods but also the possibility for the city to become something other than a metropolis covered in cement with few green spaces.
In order to illustrate these dynamics, in the following sections we present case studies of two communities, Kara Kara and Arrumani, showing the impact of these problems on these communities, the ways they have resisted, and the alternatives they are proposing for the future.
The agrarian community of Kara Kara
Kara Kara is the site of the municipal landfill, which has helped shape this area and its history. Before the dump was established, the community consisted of only approximately thirty families and there were few houses as most of the land was used for agriculture. They cultivated potatoes, corn, clover, and wheat and raised livestock and small farm animals.
The municipality opened the dump in Kara Kara in 1987. By 1990, farmers struggling to get enough water to irrigate their fields either from wells or a nearby river began to sell the land to people who wanted to build a house close to the city. Today there are more than 320 families who make up the local agrarian union but only 15 who still work the land. The new population is mainly made up of migrants from rural areas of Cochabamba (Valle Alto, Punata, and Cliza) and other provinces (Oruro, La Paz, and Norte Potosi). Many of the newcomers are people who work in the dump recycling garbage.
The dump has caused significant environmental damage in the area, especially to water quality. The population has been unable to use the local groundwater since 1999 when tests showed that it was highly polluted. As a result, water sellers with tank trucks began to supply the local population with drinking water. The contamination of the wells and the nearby river is now irreversible though some residents continue to use this water to wash clothes and cars and to water small gardens.
The two main water sources for domestic use are water sellers and community tanks, supplemented by water from the nearby river and wells when there is not enough water from other sources. Some people collect rainwater to wash or cook and others buy bottled water to drink.
In general, there is not enough water for domestic and productive uses, and the river and irrigation canals are not available in the dry season such that it is difficult for residents to maintain their small vegetable gardens and to raise farm animals.
Another problem affecting the area is the increasing number of uncontrolled and illegal settlements. In the past few years, there have been frequent conflicts, some of them very violent, due to land occupations in the area. The municipality has tried to put a stop to these conflicts but so far it has been unable to find permanent solutions. It is still uncertain if the area will remain agrarian or if it will become a transition zone and eventually an urban zone.
The Kara Kara community has been struggling to preserve the agricultural character of the area and to have the dump shut down. In 2009, they presented their case in court and their petition was sustained, but the municipality has failed to enforce the judicial order. After a series of conflicts in 2010, the municipality finally agreed to close the landfill but it looks like it will take at least three more years before they will be able to find a new site.
The community of Arrumani
According to its union leader, Arrumani has been inhabited since approximately 1880. In 1953, thanks to the Agrarian Reform, residents were given parcels of land previously owned by landlords and have been organized in an agrarian union ever since. Families grow corn, wheat, and vegetables for their own consumption and have livestock (mostly cows) and other farm animals. Recently, local cows have begun to produce milk for sale to Cochabamba's dairy processing company (PIL).
There are still some natural water sources here such as springs that are not polluted, in contrast to Kara Kara. Nevertheless, as they don't have a sewage system or a treatment plant, the disposal of wastewater is becoming an increasingly serious problem.
The community has a water tank with a capacity of 20,000 liters where well water is stored before it is distributed to households. The well is a reliable water source but the flow usually diminishes in the dry season. Only 50 percent of the community (30 families) has access to the system, and the rest use their own wells and springs or buy water from water venders. Some have to ask for or buy water from neighbors with access to the communal tank.
The water coming from the communal tank costs approximately US$0.70 per cubic meter and can only be used for domestic consumption and small farm animals as it is forbidden to use it for irrigation.
For some time the community's collective land has been occupied by illegal settlers and land traders. There are around five hundred new settlers who are now living on the common land who are neither members of the community nor part of its union. The new population is made up of migrants who come from other provinces (La Paz, Oruro, and Norte Potosi). They do not farm and usually work as venders in the city. In recent years, the agrarian union successfully halted the settlement of another 2,000 people. The high cost of these efforts, however, will make it difficult for the community to continue to fight illegal urbanization.
Arrumani has also fought the proposal to establish the new waste dump on their communal land. They have been successful so far by taking advantage of the new environmental concerns of the government. This land is supposed to be reforested by the municipality. Nevertheless, the future of this agrarian community is quite uncertain. They are continuing to fight the waste dump as the municipality has not yet chosen an alternative site. They are also actively opposing uncontrolled urbanization because, for the time being, the municipality and provincial government are unable to fund an effort to control it.
Agrarian communities in the urban periphery: water, territory, public policy, and municipal plans
As we have seen in the previous sections, there are communities in the outskirts of the city of Cochabamba that are rapidly transitioning from mostly rural agrarian areas to urbanized zones. This process seems to be in a more advanced (and almost irreversible) stage in Kara Kara than in Arrumani.
In both communities water is an important aspect of this process. Both communities mostly use water for domestic consumption and the main sources are community wells and water venders. These sources are also used to a lesser extent to provide water for farm animals and cattle or to water small gardens. Other sources are used for various purposes, including washing clothes and cars (river), watering plants and cooking (rainwater), field irrigation (canals and water from the reservoir), among others. These sources are used when there is not enough water, mostly in the dry season, or to reduce costs.
Arrumani residents use the river and irrigation canals more than their neighbors in Kara Kara because they have more farm animals and cultivated land. In Kara Kara, residents' use of the communal well is limited by the fact that the water is highly polluted by the garbage dump. They thus only use this water occasionally when there is no other option.
Another reason for the differences in water use between Arrumani and Kara Kara are the charges people have to pay. In Arrumani a cubic meter costs less (around $0.70) than in Kara Kara ($1.70) due to the different costs associated with the functioning and maintenance of the system. As a result more and more people in Kara Kara buy their water directly from water venders rather than from the communal system due to the effort and costs required to connect to it.
Neither of these communities has a sewer system in place, nor do they have a treatment plant for wastewater, which is a major contributing factor to groundwater pollution.
Asked about the future of these communities, neither community's union leaders seem to have a clear vision. Residents fear that there will be a drought because there has not been enough rain in the past few years. In both places leaders and community members have neither plans nor immediate projects to improve access to drinking water and sanitation.
Nevertheless it is very likely that both communities will need additional water sources in the future. Arrumani residents say that they want to have more cattle and for this reason they are even considering an irrigation project. This shows that at least in this community there are people who see themselves as farmers and envision an agrarian future for the area. They see the case of Kara Kara as a bad example to be avoided by other agrarian communities.
The projects planned by the municipality and the municipal water service (SEMAPA) to improve access to drinking water consider only domestic use to the exclusion of productive uses. The short-term plan intends to make use of existing tanks, but first they need to verify that these tanks are in working order and that they comply with technical norms. Nevertheless, the plan is not yet being implemented as it is not yet financially feasible. The long-term plan is to develop a system similar to the one that exists in downtown Cochabamba. This project, called “Water for the South,” is to be implemented by the municipality, but, as in the other case, funds to implement it are lacking.
The municipality is implementing the Plan for Ordering Territory (PMOT), which reconsiders districts' classification to reflect new conditions. Approving and implementing this plan will take some time, however, due to a lack of information about the southern zone. For now, some progress is being made through specific agreements with certain neighborhoods. This is an important process for the communities in question as it will determine if they continue to be classified as agrarian or if their status will change to a transition area or a mixed-use area, which could have implications for the way services are provided.
As for the problem of pollution due to the waste dump, the municipality is already working on projects to improve the impact of it on the local environment. However, the funds to carry out these projects are currently insufficient and it will take some time for the municipality to actually implement these measures.
Conclusions
In the southern zone of the city of Cochabamba, urban growth has been inexorable; though some areas remain agrarian. Social organizations in these communities are struggling to defend their rural identity in very difficult conditions: illegal settlements and constant attempts to invade communities' land as well as high levels of pollution generated by the municipality's wastewater treatment plant and garbage dump. All this is part of the southern zone's history as a marginal place excluded from municipal policies and investments in human development.
The communities featured here belong to the agrarian District 9, a zone that has gone through dramatic changes in the last 10 years. The district is the last municipal area where residents continue to farm but it is difficult to predict how long this situation will last.
The possibilities for productive activities in the area are limited due to pollution and a lack of water. This is more than evident in the case of Kara Kara where most water sources are too polluted to use. In Arrumani residents fear that if the garbage dump is moved to their territory a similar situation will soon unfold. That is why they are struggling to have the garbage dump closed down and moved somewhere far from their community.
Lack of water in these communities has made water sellers the main providers primarily in the case of domestic consumption, although the cost of that water is higher than that of the piped water supplied by the municipal water company in the northern zone.
An additional problem is that although the municipality has some plans and projects for the zone, they are not a priority, and do not consider the particular characteristics of the place and the importance of agricultural activities for the families there. In general, there is a very pessimistic vision of the future for these places on the part of the municipality, and the local authorities seem to accept the fact that they will eventually become another asphalted urban area. This is why this zone should be a priority when formulating public policies, in order to make diversity of livelihood options possible. In Bolivia, where protecting the uses of water “for life” (not just human) is a guiding principle of the newly approved Constitution, this is a relevant question.
Footnotes
Acknowledgments
We wish to acknowledge the community leaders of Kara Kara and Arrumani for their contribution to the study as well as all the people who agreed to be interviewed. We would also like to thank the Centro Vicente Cañas team for the valuable information they provided and their willingness to share it with us.
The Guest Editors gratefully acknowledge language revision support provided by Prof. Marta Baduy, Faculty of Languages, National University of Cordoba.
1
In 1983 a law was approved to declare District 9 as an agricultural zone to be irrigated by the Misicuni multiple use project.