Tapping into Water Quality in the Bolivian Andes

By Stephanie Doster | September 4, 2009

The scraggly vegetation that grows in the Altiplano region of Bolivia is aptly named. Paja brava, or brave grass, ekes out an existence in the arid shadows of the snow-capped Andes mountains, where life on the stark, brown landscape challenges plants, livestock, and people alike.

Terra members and a Bolivian water specialist filter water samples with a small syringe. Water collected in 36 communities will be analyzed for heavy metals at Stanford University.

Small rivers and streams, fed by glaciers, meander across the otherwise dry hills. They are why Zack Guido journeys to this place, nearly 14,000 feet above sea level.

Once or twice a year, Guido sheds his job as an associate staff scientist for the Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) project at The University of Arizona and heads to the Andes to work on vital water issues.

He donates his time there to a non-profit organization he co-founded, Terra–Resource Development International, which strives to boost the social and economic welfare of rural and poor Bolivian communities while bracing them against the effects of climatic change. Based in Laguna Beach, Calif., Terra provides money, technical expertise, education, and ongoing monitoring to develop water resources and improve water management.

“Terra is involved in developing water resources and improving water quality to provide a health benefit and an economic benefit for the people in these impoverished rural areas,” Guido said. “The communities use the water for drinking and for irrigating fields to grow potatoes and a cereal grain called quinoa, their sole sources of income.”

On his most recent trip in August, Guido and Terra co-founder and president Maxwell Borella, with help from Stanford University, the Technical University of Oruro in Bolivia, and a Bolivian water resource development company, spent two weeks in the Altiplano sampling shallow and deep groundwater from 50 tap, river, and well sites in 36 villages and three major watersheds. Many of the communities, made up of 50 to 250 people, get their water from shallow hand-dug wells or rivers and streams—both of which are contaminated by animal and human waste, Guido said.

The team tested the water on-site for acidity, dissolved oxygen, and electrical conductivity—parameters that can give an immediate indication of water quality and also help in interpreting laboratory results—and used acid to preserve the samples in vials, which were shipped to Stanford for a comprehensive laboratory analysis. Whereas projects in the past have focused on testing for bacteria, the goal of this project is to determine whether high concentrations of heavy metals, especially lead and arsenic, exist, as they often are found in volcanic regions like the Altiplano.

The team expects to have the results in one to two months. If the data suggest people are at risk of consuming heavy metals in their drinking water, Terra, which has signed a partnership agreement with the Bolivian Geological and Mining Survey, will publicize the problem and recruit scientists to continue studying the problem, help educate and train organizations to perform necessary tests, and launch a cross-organization dialog about appropriate water filtration solutions. Terra will also use the results to target communities for future water development projects, Guido said.

Zack Guido and community members from rural village celebrate the formation of a new partnership. Next year, Terra will help this community finance a water system.

Guido and Borella met as Peace Corps volunteers in Bolivia, where they were involved in agriculture projects between 2001 and 2003. They launched their non-profit in 2006 after realizing that very few organizations targeted small, rural communities in the Altiplano—one of the poorest regions in Bolivia—and that no one tested water quality  for harmful heavy metals.

“We established this connection to the landscape, the environment, and the people,” Guido said. “It was hard to turn our backs on these communities because there is so much need. The work satisfies my need for adventure and my desire to help other people.”

In rural Bolivia, many poor families have no access to healthy drinking water, and most people have chronic dysentery, Guido said. In the Bolivian Andes, many people earn an average income of less than $2 a day. This poverty prohibits communities from developing vital water resources without external aid. Most villages have no developed irrigation water, and recurring droughts continually destroy cash crops, Guido said.

“The Altiplano is sublimely beautiful and it is a world of extremes,” Guido said. “It is a harsh environment because it sits at a high elevation and because of the rain shadow effect of the Andes. In the dry season, there is no rain. In the wet season, it floods.”

Guido fears that health risks and a loss of income from unreliable irrigation could drive some farmers from the mountains into El Alto, a crowded and poor city that sprouted up beside the capital, La Paz.

“People in the Altiplano identify themselves with farming and with the land. It’s not that bad of an existence. It’s how they have lived for thousands of years,” Guido said. “By helping to develop groundwater by drilling wells and building water tanks, we are helping them stay in their rural existence if they want to.”

Since 2006, Terra has launched and completed a number of projects, contributing up to 70 percent of the cost to improve water resources through grants, donations, and the founders’ own bank accounts, Guido said. Rolling up their sleeves and sweating under the penetrating Andean sun, Guido, Borella, and villagers have built latrines; drilled groundwater and irrigation wells; and constructed a greenhouse, a wind turbine pump, a water storage tank, and a water network for 25 families.

“We’ve been working in Bolivia for nearly 10 years and I hope for many more. The people are so grateful,” Guido said. “It’s awesome returning to the villages and seeing water flowing from a spigot or a windmill whipping in the breeze pumping groundwater.”

Because poor communities are the most ill-equipped to adapt to climate-related changes to water resources, aid for water development is essential, Guido said. This is especially critical given the forecast by the 2007 Fourth Assessment Report of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for a more drought-intensive future for the Bolivian Andes.

The climate change dynamic could directly affect the water supply of La Paz, which largely draws its water from glacier-fed rivers. As the area covered by ice decreases in a warming world, the city’s water supply will shrink, Guido said.

“We want to get people thinking about this problem both in La Paz and in the Altiplano,” Guido said. “The major climate change issue in the Bolivian Andes is similar to the U.S. Southwest: it’s all about water.”