Communicating water monitoring in Bolivia

ucl.ac.uk/silva/rdr/people/megan-french" target="_self"> Dr Megan French of the UCL IRDR recently completed her project on assessing water risk from mining on the Bolivian Altiplano, working with Dr Stephen Edwards (UCL Hazard Centre and IRDR) and Professor Karen Hudson-Edwards (Birkbeck, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences). The project was co-funded by the IRDR and the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) and was undertaken in collaboration with CENDA (Centro de Comunicación y Desarrollo Andino) in Bolivia. A lot was learned about the challenges of undertaking research to provide usable results at community level. The biggest impact has been the use of the results of the study to raise awareness of water quality and availability issues in the Pazña and Poopó sub-basins at government and community levels. The outcome is that the research has enabled CENDA to work with the Bolivian Vice Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation to set up the Water Quality Monitoring System for the Poopó and Pazña Rivers, with the participation of the Regional Government of Oruro, the municipal governments of Poopó and Pazña, community water monitoring groups and local actors. A key achievement is the involvement of communities, as this gives legitimacy to the work of communities and civil society organisations in Bolivia. For more information, please contact Stephen Edwards at s.edwards@ucl.ac.uk.

---