Irrigation in Bolivia
Bolivia’s government considers irrigated agriculture as a major contributor to "better quality of life, rural and national development."
According to the Irrigation Vice-Ministry, the agricultural sector in the eastern part of Bolivia generated US$2,160 million exporting soya, sunflower and sugarcane products.
The Government of President Morales—Bolivia’s first indigenous President—who came into power in January 2006, has prepared a Plan Nacional de Desarrollo: Bolivia Digna, Soberana, Productiva y Democrática para Vivir Bien (PND).
Irrigation is a major component of the PND since it "plays a fundamental role in increasing agricultural production and diversification, rural employment, and food security in Bolivia" .
These irrigation systems consist of rudimentary web of canals supplied by rainfall with few regulatory schemes such as dams, which makes them very vulnerable to seasonality of rain.
For example, in western regions of Oruro, Potosí and Tarija, close to 45,000 square kilometers have low soil productivity on account of erosion.
[5] Agricultural runoff is one of the main contributors to water pollution in Bolivia, together with domestic municipal wastewater and dumping by industries and mines.
The greatest percentage of the pollution load is due to diffuse dumping from agricultural and fishing activities and runoffs of urban areas.
[5] The Spanish colonists, soon after their arrival in the central Andes in the 16th century, appropriated the best farmlands on the coasts and valleys and pushed the indigenous population to the more inhospitable highlands.
[6] Following the 1985 economic reform, the government of Paz Estenssoro aimed at moving towards a distortion-free market economy that would attract private investment to the agricultural sector.
The World Bank considers that some of the reforms undertaken at that time were ill-informed, especially “the lack of constructive governmental intervention to provide needed public goods such as land titling, agricultural research and extension, and irrigation infrastructure.” As a result, the agricultural sector has lacked the underpinnings in both human and physical capital that facilitate development.
Registries are granted to the indigenous and local families or communities and are aimed at securing water access for domestic or traditional agriculture use respectively.
[12] Evo Morales’ administration is aiming at transforming the irrigation sector focusing on participatory decision-making and integrated water resources management at the river basin level with a strong emphasis on public investment.
The new PRONAR consist of five major components: (i)support agricultural and forestry production, (ii) support water resources management, (iii) strengthen institutional framework capacities, (iv)increase investment on irrigation and drainage infrastructure, and (v)integral technical assistance, capacity building and research.
[15] There are also the usual legal considerations that need to be checked when developing PPPs in any sector, such as legal restrictions on the type of PPP arrangement that can be entered into, relevant procurement rules for entering into PPPs, existence of restrictions on foreign investment, taxation and potential for tax holidays and the ability to assign rights such as security and step in rights to lenders.
Irrigation Investment by department and source Source: Ministerio de Asuntos Campesinos y Agropecuarios (2005) Although specific impacts of Climate Change on irrigation in Bolivia are still unknown, phenomena such as a high intensity El Nino in the form of floods, droughts, frost and hail are generally expected to affect Bolivia.
Natural disasters directly affect the country’s development, because it hurts its economic results, weaken its social well-being, cause capital losses, and damage the roads and energy and irrigation infrastructure.
Landslides in 1997 and 1998 in the communities of Cotahuma, Mokotor, and the Kunii area, in the department of La Paz, caused 24 deaths and destroyed 264 homes.
For example, Bolivia’s Chacaltaya glacier, situated 20 km NE of the city of La Paz, has lost 82% of its surface area since 1982 and may completely melt by 2013.
[17] (See Impacts of Glacier Retreat in the Andes:Documentary) The World Bank is currently undertaken a US 78.1 million Second Participatory Rural Investment Project with the objective of piloting the consolidation of institutional arrangements between the national, prefecture and municipal governments and civil society for sustainable management of sub-national public investment in irrigated agriculture, forestry and fishing with an emphasis on territorial development.
The World Bank is also supporting with US$12.5 million the implementation of the National Plan for Sustainable Rehabilitation and Reconstruction (PRRES), thought the Bolivia Emergency Recovery and Disaster Management Project aimed at strengthening the national system for risk management and rehabilitation, reconstruction, and small mitigation works.
[19] The IDB together with the GTZ provided technical and financial assistance to Bolivia’s government in the implementation of a National Irrigation Plan, PRONAR that finalized in 2005.
