[NYTr] Bolivia: Capital war, Water Concerns, Timing

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Regarding
 
"Bolivia's 'capital war' stokes fear of civil conflict" (Aug 8, 2007)
https://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20070806/066498.html


Bolivia:  Capital war, Water Concerns, Timing

by Peter Bell

Timing is everything.

It's  been just over a year since I was in La Paz.  While I agree with
the longer-term view that changing the balance of the population in
Bolivia may be valuable, to dismiss the problems highlighted in this
piece as representing geographical bias by journos is not a
particularly good read, I don't think.

Right now, La Paz and El Alto are on track to become enomous - El Alto
will be larger than La Paz itself within, I believe, ten years.  Most of
the area's water supply comes from a glacier in the mountains above the
city, and there is an awareness in Bolivia that as global warming
continues and the glacier shrinks, there are going to be real problems
in La Paz.  El Alto is massive, and like many quickly built, poor areas
in Latin America it's jarring to a northern eye.

However, a delay in debating the capital, so that a strong Constitution
can be agreed before moving on, is vital.  If the debate waits a year or
two, there will yet be time to make a decision.  Opening up an argument
about the capital to inflame old tensions in Bolivia now may well have
been a suggestion that came straight from the Ambassador of the United
States.  It's a simplistic plan which idiot US nationals might agree
with (they won't look to see where our capital is located compared to
our geographic center, that's for sure.) It's probably simple enough to
explain to the President.  And it's far likelier to make Bolivia
resemble his successful posting in Yugoslavia than a strong
constitution would be.

By the way, a look at google maps of Sucre does not convince me that
there's an abundance of water there, either.  I have not seen annual
rainfall figures for Sucre, but it looks to me to be farther from the
sea and immediately behind more mountains than La Paz, and hence
further in the rain shadow of the Andes.  My bet is that the main
population center and capital stay more-or-less where they are, and
that a gravity fed diversion from Lake Titicaca may be in the works.
The tricky part will be in working out agreements with Peru and
protecting the lake itself.

-Peter Bell