Impact of Mining on Water Resources: La Paz, Bolivia

La Paz, LPZ, Bolivia

By Patricia Oviedo
water, water contamination, mining, environment, environmental justice, health, environmental science, latin america

My project analyzes the proximity of dams to mining areas in La Paz to potentially determine which are at risk of contamination and extraction.

Impact of Mining Activity on Water Resources in Bolivia

On November 2016 the Bolivian government declared a state of emergency in its main city: La Paz. The reason for this was that the city had ran out of water supply as 3 of the main dams that provided potable water to important parts of the city had dried out. People would receive water 3 hours every 3 days for a 4 month period.

Although the government listed climate change as the main cause for the water crisis, in my thesis project, I explore multiple causes that led the dams to reduce to 5% of their capacity. The cause that I address in my map however, is only the effect of mining activities on water resources in La Paz. The main reason I decided to focus on that was because my research showed 63% of watersheds in Bolivia have mining contamination, and more importantly, that 1 mine in Bolivia can extract up to 43 million gallons of water in 1 day.

To do this I decided to create a map of all the water resources in Bolivia (rivers + water dams) and also the mining areas of La Paz. I used information from GEObolivia, DIVAGIS and CEDIB for my spatial analysis. My first observation was the vast amount of rivers there are in La Paz, which seemed ironic considering the recent water crisis. Secondly I wanted to analyze the vulnerability of certain water dams that were near mining areas.

To do this, I decided to create a buffer of 30 meters around the mining areas, to determine which dams fell in that 30 meter buffer and were potentially at “risk” of extraction or contamination (followed by a intersect by layer analysis). I used the 30 meter figure based of a mining study of a mine project in Canada, which after investigation determined that any body of water or dam should not be closer than 30 meters because it would increase their risk of contamination or excessive extraction.

My final results showed 3 dams that had dried out in the water crisis, were the ones in that fell in the 30 meter buffer analysis. Incachaca, Hampaturi, Kunkihara, were the dams that dried out and also fell in the 30 meter buffer. The exception were the dams of Estrellani, and Chojla which fell in the 30 meter buffer, but were not dried in the water crisis.

These results were extremely surprising and considering recent findings by studies which have examined water resources in La Paz actually have mining contamination, this signaled a potential relationship between proximity to mining areas and water scarcity in these dams. However, to determine a more significant correlation there would have to be further on site research and water testing in these areas. Finally there would also have to be an in depth study of the % of water that is extracted by the mining sector in Bolivia.

For more information of full thesis project, contact me at oviep278@newschool.edu