ABSTRACT

In October 2009, Bolivian President Evo Morales declared the Huanuni River valley, in the Andean department of Oruro, to be in a state of environmental emergency. For nearly 100 years, the Huanuni mine, currently operated by the state mining corporation COMIBOL (Corporación Minera de Bolivia), has emitted untreated mining waste directly into the Huanuni River. The president’s decree (Decreto Supremo, or Presidential Decree, number 0335, hereafter DS 0335), mandated environmental remediation projects at the mine site and in affected communities downstream. This marks the fi rst time in Bolivian history that this declaration – normally reserved for ‘natural’ disasters such as fl oods, droughts or mudslides – has been invoked in a case of anthropogenic environmental degradation. Morales’ declaration signals a potentially important shift in the Bolivian government’s approach to mining, which historically has been permitted to operate with little oversight and scant regard for social and environmental impacts. A growing body of scientifi c evidence, however, has merely confi rmed what local residents have long known: that levels of pollution in the river (as well as in Lake Uru Uru, into which it fl ows) are dangerously high, with profoundly negative implications for the lives and livelihoods of people living downstream.