environmental protest
Garbage crisis in Bolivia: Citizens fight against landfill
Garbage is piling up on the streets of the Bolivian city after days of blockade by Cochabamba residents. photo
© David Flores/dpa
Residents of the city of Cochabamba blocked the entrance to the plant for days in protest at the location of a waste dump. Now the streets are covered in rubbish.
For days, residents blocked access to a large landfill in Bolivia, sparking a garbage crisis.
The blockade has now been lifted in the hope of reaching an agreement with the governor of Cochabamba province, Humberto Sánchez. The first of about 80 garbage trucks that had been waiting outside the gates of the K’ara K’ara garbage dump in the provincial capital Cochabamba were then able to drive to the landfill to dump their garbage and collect accumulated waste, Bolivian television reported on Friday (local time ) reported.
Accordingly, 3,000 tons of garbage had accumulated in the streets of Cochabamba over the past few days. Residents had blocked access to the landfill to demonstrate for its relocation. The conflict over K’ara K’ara has been brewing for a long time. According to Bolivian television, Cochabamba’s mayor Manfred Reyes Villa had promised to close the dump, which had existed since 1987, in 2021, but so far this has not happened. Now the residents are hoping for a relocation.