10 December 2012: The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has announced that it will loan US$20 million to Bolivia to improve municipal solid waste management, promote recycling and composting and integrate wastepickers into the formal waste management system, according to an IDP press release.
The US$20 million loan will benefit at least three cities: Riberalta (department of Beni), Potosí (Potosí), and a third to be chosen by Bolivia’s Directorate General of Comprehensive Solid Waste Management (DGGIRS) from a list containing El Alto (La Paz), Cobija (Pando), Sucre (Chuquisaca), and Trinidad (Beni) and the municipalities in Cochabamba department. Riberalta has 91,089 people who generate 43.4 tons of waste per day, all of which currently goes to an open-air dump. US$16.7 million of the loan will focus on designing, siting and constructing mechanized sanitary landfill sites for each city and properly closing the dumps currently used.
US$1.34 million of the loan will be aimed at integrating the informal wastepickers working at the dumps into the formal waste management sector, through organization and training, and at constructing the infrastructure and procuring equipment to promote waste separation at source, recycling and composting. US$772,126 will help the municipalities involved develop and implement comprehensive solid waste management plans, update their regulatory frameworks, develop management information, monitoring and control systems, train key personnel, conduct studies, and develop communication strategies.
Over five years the loan is expected to: benefit about 190,000 households, or around one million inhabitants, with waste collection and transport services; replace three municipal dumps with sanitary landfills; construct three recycling plants; and increase amount of municipal solid waste disposed in sanitary landfills nationwide from the current 37% to 51%.
One fifth (US$4 million) of the loan will come from IDB’s Fund for Special Operations (FSO), with an annual interest rate of only 0.25% and a 40-year repayment and grace period. [IDB Press Release]