_Designing Pro-poor Water and Sewer Concessions_ _Kristin Komives_

# **1. The water and sanitation situation in La Paz and El Alto**

The La Paz-El Alto metropolitan area has a population of over 1.3 million. The population is roughly divided between La Paz and its rapidly growing neighbor El Alto.<sup>3</sup> Development in La Paz initially was nestled in a steep river valley, but the city has since grown up the sides of the valley and into El Alto on the vast plain above. The wealthiest residents of the metropolitan area live deep in the valley, while low-income families live in El Alto and on the steep slopes, or "laderas," surrounding central La Paz.

As in many Latin American cities, public services in the poorer, often newer, neighborhoods on the outskirts of the metropolitan area lag behind services in the wealthier and older central area. Water and sewer services are no exception. In-house water and sewer connections are much more prevalent in central and southern La Paz than in El Alto and the laderas of La Paz.

Somewhere between 83 and 93 percent of El Alto and La Paz residents have access to some fonn of piped water service: either an in-house water connection or a public tap near their homes.<sup>4</sup> Households without in-house water connections or access to public standposts meet their demand for water with a combination of water vendors, municipal water delivery service, neighbors with water service, rainwater collection, private household wells, and nearby streams.<sup>5</sup> An estimated 66 percent of La Paz homes and between 30 and 45 percent of El Alto homes have sewer service. For households without sewer service, septic tanks offer an alternative, but in 1992, only a small number of households had septic tanks: 4 percent of households in El Alto and 21 percent in La Paz.<sup>7</sup> Households without septic tanks or sewer connections in their homes use stream beds, latrines, public toilets, and toilets in other private homes.

> 3 Estimates place the current El Alto population at 600,000 residents and the La Paz population at 740,000. These estimates are based on census figures from 1992 and the historical growth rate in the two cities. In 1992, the population of El Alto and La Paz was 405,492 and 713,378 respectively. From 1982 to 1992, El Alto grew at 9.4 percent per year and La Paz at 1.6 percent per year. _Censo de Poblaci6n y Vivienda 1992._

> 4 Current coverage figures are based on estimates of the number of housing units in La Paz and El Alto and of the number of households that use each public tap. Because exact data is not available, different sources produce different estimates. In 1992 (the date of the most recent census), 33 percent of El Alto residents, as compared to 55 percent of La Paz residents, reported having in-house water connections. _Censo de Poblaciton y Vivienda 1992._

> 5 _Informe Final: Diagn6stico RPpido sobre las Condiciones de Saneamiento Basico en las Zonas Urbano Marginales de la Ciudad de El Alto,_ 1998, prepared for the UNDP-World Bank Water and Sanitation Program by Centro de Estudios y Proyectos of Bolivia.

6 Like water coverage figures, sewer coverage figures are estimates based on inexact data. Estimates from different sources, therefore, vary.

_7 Censo de Poblaci6n y Vivienda 1992_ 3