FUNDACIÓN PROHABITAT
Municipality of La Paz

The objective of this study is to design social policies that aim at improving the public-private relation by analyzing alternative models in solid waste management that are being implemented in the city of La Paz, Bolivia. This research took up the case study of solid waste management in the District of Cotahuma, a more typical sample - owing to its characteristics - of the wide variety of problems and solution to the problem in a city like La Paz where topographic, technological, social, political, institutional, administrative and, of course, economic aspects converge.

Regarding its contents, chapter 1 sets out the theoretical framework on the basis of recent studies disseminated by ECLAC and other international organizations related to the management of public services in the new economic order and in works related to environmental and regulatory legislation ante and post enactment of environmental laws, with Popular and Municipal participation, and in recently conducted analyses to formulate the bill of law for the protection and defense of consumers. Chapter 2 includes diagnosis work conducted by Liliana Collazos, Adolfo Navarro and Jean Claude Bolay to analyze solid waste management in the area under study, in relation to urban environment in the city of La Paz, that describe the environmental urban reality.  Chapter 3 contains the results of the case study on "Solid Waste Management in the District of Cotahuma in the city of La Paz". Chapter 4 includes policy proposals prepared by the research team on the basis of considerations and contributions from actors participating at meetings and workshops organized throughout the study period.

From the methodological point of view, the research started with the formulation of a set of hypotheses that in previous analyses, and during the project formulation process, appeared as the most significant questions raised by the issue. Later, over the course of the study, these were adjusted following the interaction created among stakeholders.  For this reason the study techniques - preferably the participatory kind -, ranged from initial surveys to interviews and talks with the protagonists.