Building water security in the Andes of Bolivia - The Source

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Building water security in the Andes of Bolivia - The Source

Paula Cecilia Soto Ríos  and  Paola Andrea Alvizuri Tintaya  describe Bolivia’s pathway to water resilience in the face of climate change and its impact on the region’s glaciers.

Bolivia holds a unique position in South America’s hydrological landscape, with ecosystems ranging from high-altitude glaciers to Amazonian wetlands. This diversity offers significant opportunities for building a resilient water future. While the country faces pressures from climate variability, demographic change and resource intensive economic activities, it also benefits from a wealth of local knowledge, abundant natural assets, and innovative practices that can strengthen water security for future generations.

In the Andes of Bolivia, high-altitude glaciers supply a substantial share of dry season water to La Paz and El Alto. However, according to studies, these glaciers have experienced a 43% surface area loss since the 1980s. Urban expansion, the growth of industrial and mining activities, and persistent infrastructure challenges have intensified competition for water resources. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC), without adaptation measures, the La Paz-El Alto metropolitan area could experience a 30-40% seasonal water reduction by 2030.

Despite these concerns, Bolivia’s policy frameworks, such as the constitutional recognition of water as a human right, combined with a growing network of community-led water initiatives, provide a strong foundation for adaptive action. A coordinated strategy that blends regulatory enforcement, climate adaptation, technological innovation, and the revitalisation of community-based systems offers a clear pathway to ensuring equitable, reliable and sustainable water access.

Access, gaps and equity

Over the past two decades, Bolivia has made significant progress in extending access to safe drinking water in urban areas. As of 2024, nationwide coverage reached 88% for drinking water and 65.1% for basic sanitation. In urban areas, drinking water coverage stands at 95.5%, compared with 69.7% in rural areas. For basic sanitation, coverage is 72.7% in urban zones, but still only 46.3% in rural areas.

Although the gap between urban and rural access has narrowed, notable disparities remain, especially in sanitation. A 2023 diagnostic by the Ministry of Environment and Water (MMAyA) and the Authority for Oversight and Social Control of Drinking Water and Basic Sanitation (AAPS) identified three critical areas for improvement:

Addressing these structural challenges alongside climate adaptation measures will be essential for safeguarding Bolivia’s water security in the decades ahead.

Integrating climate adaptation into risk management

Bolivia has strengthened its disaster risk management framework by integrating climate change adaptation into legislative instruments that establish the foundation for preventive and adaptive policies. This includes the Framework Law on Autonomies, the Agricultural Revolution Law, the Risk Management Law, the Mother Earth Law, and the State Planning System. At the regional level, strategic and territorial plans need to incorporate updated risk considerations.

Bolivia’s National Basin Plan (Plan Nacional de Cuencas, PNC), introduced in 2006 and updated for the 2013-17 multi-annual cycle, functions as a flexible, participatory policy, rooted in Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) principles. It emphasises strategic basin governance, intersectoral coordination, and adaptive learning through cyclical planning, allowing the evaluation of past outcomes to inform future policy refinements. Research demonstrates that the PNC represents a deliberate shift away from narrow, infrastructure-focused interventions towards broader social, environmental and institutional integration, reflecting the evolution of Bolivia’s water governance beyond purely remedial measures.

Despite institutional advances, the Katari Basin continues to experience severe environmental stress driven by heavy metal contamination from historic mining, untreated urban wastewater from El Alto, land fragmentation, fragile soils, and increasingly frequent extreme weather events. Academic research shows that acid mine drainage introduces arsenic, cadmium and lead into rivers, while insufficient wastewater treatment has contributed to eutrophication, microbial contamination, and the spread of antibiotic-resistant genes in surface waters. These combined pressures have degraded agricultural soils and reduced crop yields, frequently forcing local authorities to focus on emergency responses rather than sustained, long-term prevention.

The climate clock and opportunities for adaptation

Glaciers are vital freshwater reservoirs, feeding rivers and aquifers, especially during dry seasons, and sustaining both human and ecological systems. In Bolivia, the Andes act as natural water towers, storing precipitation as snow and ice. However, significant glacier loss has been documented because of global warming. Studies indicate that tropical glaciers in the Bolivian Andes have lost approximately half of their volume and surface area since 1975. Growing investment in monitoring, early warning systems, improved reservoir management, and ecosystem restoration in glacier-fed catchments is expected to sustain dry-season flows and support long-term water security.

The World Glacier Monitoring Service reports retreat rates of 0.6-1.2 m of ice thickness per year for glaciers such as Zongo and Illimani. Research has shown that glacier retreat in the Cordillera Real, particularly on peaks such as Huayna Potosí, is exposing new rock outcrops and glacial materials, indicating changes in the hydrological regime. Additionally, the formation of small- and medium-sized lakes at the end of retreating glaciers poses potential risks to downstream communities. These lakes are often unstable and can suddenly release large volumes of water in what are called glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), which can destroy homes, roads, farmland and natural habitats.

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