A Farmers Livelihood Turns Locals Illby Rosa Domingos | 08-01-2019 23:08 |
---|
What gets flushed down in Bolivia's capital city is used to irrigate the green, leafy fields that supply its produce markets. Richard Mamani (a farmer of a town called Valência of Lá Paz) has been using water from untreated sewage to irrigate his vegetables. It has been part of a family tradition. Like his parents before him, it is also a source of livelihood. He has had safe drinking water for some years, but he mentioned that it has become too expensive to use it on his fields. "We don't use fertilisers and look," he said, proudly pointing to corn and other vegetables. Yet, he knows the risks of utilising the water, which sometimes billows up clouds of foamy pollutants in the farm fields. "I know it's dangerous, even for our health, but we have to tend to our fields or else we'll starve," Mamani said. Bolivia is one South America's poorest countries and the world's highest capital lacks a waste water treatment plant. Not okay :( The untreated fetid waters from households and factories flow into the Choqueyapu, Cotahuma and Orkohauira rivers that run from La Paz to the city's southern agricultural hub. A 2013 environmental report by Bolivia's comptroller general described them as in a "very bad quality range". The Environment and Water Ministry says it hopes to change this with the construction of the city's first water treatment plant. But for now, most of the produce that arrives in the early mornings at the markets in La Paz is often contaminated. An audit by the comptroller general said that out of a sample, "12.5% of agricultural products were acceptable; 25% were mildly acceptable; and 62.5% were rejectable." Some carry parasites, including E.coli. Symptoms of E. coli infection include diarrhoea, severe stomach cramps and vomiting. There are no specific studies available at this point to the impact on the health of the population, but the National Institute for Health Laboratories says 70% of acute diarrheic illnesses are linked to eating contaminated food, including vegetables. The contamination is also a crisis in rivers in other Bolivian cities such as Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, where 65% of Bolivia's 11 million people live. Mining often pollutes waterways in smaller cities. And so far, no initiative has been established in this small town to counteract this problem. Source: News24 - https://m.news24.com/Green/News/water-from-sewage-rivers-used-to-grow-vegetables-in-bolivia-20181212 13/12/2018
|