Integral solutions in solid waste management and wastewater treatment for growing cities

Keeping on course for a sanitation solution in fast-growing cities

Worldwide, nearly 200,000 people move from the countryside to the city every day! In town, so they hope, they’ll find everything that is missing in the countryside: schools, hospitals, drinking water, shopping facilities, work and income. On their arrival, most of them are located in marginal areas of both, large cities and small provincial villages, where they face an unemployment life, insecurity and poor access to basic services.

The municipalities are often overwhelmed by the population growth and the sanitation problems that come along with it. They do have experience in planning water supply systems and road networks, but planning environmental measures poses greater challenges. In close collaboration with the Bolivian Environment and Water Resources Ministry, HELVETAS is supporting municipal authorities in their efforts to ensure efficient and sustainable wastewater treatment and solid waste management services in 11 small and medium sized municipalities, including the country's capital city, Sucre. The target is to treat 75% of sewage and to dispose the 50% of collected waste of the population.

These are the usual and visible answers to urban sanitation problems. But our urban environment project takes an upstream approach that starts long before building such facilities. In courses and manuals, municipal government workers are learning to ascertain requirements, set up pilot studies and get planning processes going. They are also learning to capitalize on a previously untapped resource: the knowledge and demands of the population concerned. The townsfolk, for their part, are learning not only to make their suggestions and demands heard by the authorities, but also to change their habits regarding their solid waste responsible management and their sanitary facilities care. In general, the project's actions will benefit approximately 350,000 people who will improve their life quality.

This urban environment project is complex and demands plenty of staying power on the part of everyone involved. But it’s worth it: because national government agencies as well as regional and municipal authorities are part of the project, their improved understanding of how to cope with the mounting sanitation issues of the urban population boom will have knock-on effects on environmental management in other small towns and big cities as well.

This project is a Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation mandate in Bolivia, implemented by HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation and Aguatuya Foundation.