Sucre: Basurero

As Lauren had promised, the thing you had been waiting so eagerly for... the DUMP, in Spanish, basurero. Apparently, landfill tourism isn't very popular (I'm not sure why), but it was one of our most memorable tours so far. Thanks to our friend Brendan Mulligan, whom we met in Sucre through our Spanish School, we had the opportunity to see something that even locals were not aware of.

Brendan is from Canada and completed his masters in hydro-geology. He is spearheading two landfill projects in Bolivia, one in El Alto (above La Paz), and the other in Sucre, where we visited. His objective is to mediate between Canadian students and Bolivian students to address the problems of leachate (water runoff) in both these sites. The work of a hydro-geologist overlaps with landfills in many regards: location of landfill in relation to water systems, type of soil/rock the landfill is placed on, and how to manage the leachate. Ideally a landfill is placed on bedrock that captures the leachate, if this is not possible, a protective liner must be used. Leachate can escape the bedrock through cracks, for which a hydro-geologist may test the surrounding soil.

We first met Brendan at his University and were suprisingly also met by the owner of the garbage company, the operations director of the landfill, and a master's student under Brenden's project. We were given a presentation by the director about the state of garbage in Sucre and how the company operates to serve the community. From the presentation and simple questions that we could ask in Spanish, we quickly learned that Sucre did not have a recycling program. This was shocking to us, only because our favorite park was equiped with three different recepticals: one for paper, one for plastic, and one for organics. Though these recepticals were painted different colors and had decent signage, there was no regular trash receptical aside from the recylce recepticals (first bad sign), which made the contents inside indistinguishable: mixed waste. The owner of the garbage company explained to us that the city merely put these containers in the park without consenting the garbage company, with whom they contract. Brendan had two theories about the matter: #1 The City merely wanted to look progressive under the false pretenses of having a recycling program, or #2 Some person from the City was naive and thought that if you simply have the containers, then you have recycling, giving no foresight to the fact there there needs to be a system in place to haul the segregated materials, not to mention a facility to process them, of which there were neither. We left the University with Brendan and the owner of the landfill to begin our tour.

The landfill was a drive into the outer-rim of the city. The suburbs are not like the suburbs of the States with large tract homes. They are rather shanty towns. The further you get from the city, the poorer the communities. We approached the entrance of the landfill, and digging through some exposed trash was a pack of dogs. As we entered the site, dogs were drinking from the toxic brown water that was the reason for our visit.

Walking the site, we quickly observed the purpose for Brendan's project. There were several exposed runoff locations that led into a large lagoon of black water with trash floating atop. The landfill was designed on the slope of a large hill, so that all rainwater from the top passes right through the landfill into this holding pond. A concrete wall was setup to dam the material, however, the wall was perferated to let the water escape, as the water pressure in the wet season is enough to break the wall down without drainage. We were encouraged to take pictures, which I have posted on the photobucket website www.photobucket.com/endlesswinter (under the Bolivia tab).

All in all, this was a wonderful experience and we have to thank our newfound-friend Brendan. We were honored to have recieved a presentation and tour from the official sources of Sucre's waste community. I asked myself at first, why would such professionals in the field take the time for two travelling B.A. grads as Lauren and I? The reason is that so little resources are available to make drastic changes. Any exposure possible to the situation opens possibilities to outside assistance. I explained to them my background in the waste management field, and Brendan explained to me that there are great the opportunities to do research in Bolivia, as the Country's universities and private sectors are usually unable to fund such undertakings. I hope to go back to school for my master's in the next couple of years. My visa to Bolivia lasts another 5 years... so who knows, maybe I will take Brendan up on his offer and use his expertise to guide me on a research project. The owner of the garbage company will have planted a good seed.

~Andy