The road is a disaster…Our costs have gone up<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
A flagship project of President Evo Morales, who signed Bolivia up to China’s Belt and Road Initative<\/a> in June 2018, the road will diagonally traverse a portion of the country, serving as a link between the Peruvian and Chilean border areas to the south-west and Brazil to the north-east.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lagoons formed by the removal of earth to build the road. There are several along the Rurrenabaque-Riberalta road. Photo by Miriam Jemio.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n <\/div>\n
Multiple problems<\/h2>\n
Dust, mud, traffic jams, and poor signalling have blighted the road over the past four years, according to residents and drivers who frequently travel between Rurrenabaque and the towns of Reyes and Santa Rosa, 95-kilometres north of the capital La Paz.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re the ones who suffer, the ones in transport, because it rains for one day and for a week the road is unusable,” says Carlos Marupa, a minivan driver.<\/p>\n
\n15.56%<\/p>\n
\n
\nthe completed portion of the road from Rurrenabaque to Riberalta
\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\nUsers complain that the surface is not suitably compact and fear it will deteriorate soon after completion.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want the Chinese to continue working, but to do it conscientiously, not as it is. They have stopped for five months, in the dry season there have been accidents and crashes because they stop working and there are no signs,\u201d says Walter Delgado Arce, leader of the Trans Ballivi\u00e1n de Rurrenabaque union.<\/p>\n
The union wrote to the Bolivian Highway Administrator (ABC), the body in charge of the road, calling on it to ensure the construction company undertake vital maintenance and irrigation works, and provide adequate signaling.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe road is a disaster,\u201d says Roy Villar, head of a transport company in Reyes. \u201cOur costs have gone up. From Reyes to Santa Rosa it took us an hour and 45 minutes. When the company did maintenance a year and a half ago, it took us an hour.”<\/p>\n
Villar adds that the situation is worse in the dry season, when visibility is very poor and causes accidents.<\/p>\n
Nor do small sewers along the route let water flow properly undernearth. Last February, at the source of the Siwapi River, on the fringes of the the Santa Rosita comunal territory, some 20-kilometres from Rurrenabaque, water from the Beni River collapsed the drain.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re requesting a bridge, because the water hits us hard in rainy weather. The whole community is flooded,\u201d says Alfredo Crespo, a resident of the Cosar community, where 67 farming families live.<\/p>\n
In February, a metre\u2019s worth of water inundated Darnixa Crespo Ciripi’s house in the same farming community.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went out with the animals to the road because the water entered our homes. More than anything it is because of the bridge, they agreed to make it bigger and haven\u2019t,” she says.<\/p>\n
Darnixa Crespo Ciripi shows the height of floods last February. Photo by Miriam Jemio.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The residents of Cosar say the size and poor functioning of the drains has caused them to lose chickens, plantain and rice crops.<\/p>\n
At the end of February, those affected from the Cosar, Villa Copacabana, San Jos\u00e9, Puerto Salinas, Wawa 1 and R\u00edo Viejo communities blocked the road demanding that ABC build a bridge in Siwapi over the international highway, replacing the collapsed sewer.<\/p>\n
Government response<\/h2>\n
Authorities have recognised these problems. In May, public works minister Oscar Coca threatened to fine the construction company for breach of contract.<\/p>\n
“There is a serious problem with a road that goes from Rurrenabaque to Riberalta, unfortunately the company is not complying,” the ANF agency<\/a> reported Coca as saying.<\/p>\n
ABC\u2019s 2018 Public Accountability Report also confirms the delay<\/a>.<\/p>\n
However, local authorities seem less worried than residents. Anacleto D\u00e1valos Arias, mayor of Rurrenabaque, says that in the two and a half years since the construction of the road began, 50-55% of his section, from Rurrenabaque to Reyes, has been completed.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Drivers' visibility is impeded by dust. According to transport union leaders, who blame the contruction company's lack of irrigation, this has already led to several accidents. Photo by Miriam Jemio.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n <\/div>\n
\u201cOnly the asphalt layer is missing,\u201d he says, although he admits that from Reyes to Santa Rosa there is only 10% to 15% progress.<\/p>\n
Di\u00e1logo Chino<\/em> visited the site in the first week of July, finding the company working on different sites with heavy machinery on the Rurrenabaque to Reyes and Reyes to Santa Rosa de Yacuma stretches.<\/p>\n
On the latter, however, it has only widened the road. Dump trucks and tractors come and go along the more than 30 kilometres that separate Rurrenabaque from Reyes, two villages located on the first 95-kilometre stretch.<\/p>\n
The Chinese company\u2019s employees transport earth towards the main road platform, compacting the embankment or knocking down trees. There is more actvity closer to Reyes.<\/p>\n
It would be difficult to imagine the Rurrenabaque-Riberalta highway project passing the IADB’s safeguards<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Opponents of Evo Morales\u2019 government have requested reports on the delays from the Bolivian Highway Administrator.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe minister (Coca) said they would enforce fines (for the delay) but within a few days they were given the order to proceed with works. I don’t know what was going on there,\u201d opposition senator Yerko N\u00fa\u00f1ez told Di\u00e1logo Chino<\/em>.<\/p>\n
\u201cHave [they] outsourced [to] other companies to move forward with the work? Has the cost of the road gone up?\u201d N\u00fa\u00f1ez asked rhetorically.<\/p>\n
N\u00fa\u00f1ez said the road is a popular project but from the outset they\u2019d demanded it be of high quality. He added that Chinese government finance has enabled the road. It is not a gift.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to pay interest, so we are monitoring and we have denounced a number of irregularities,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n
One such irregularity is alleged sub-contracting.<\/p>\n
Unsure if CRCC requested or received authorisation from ABC to outsource work, Mayor D\u00e1valos said: \u201cWe have seen many companies working in the sector, it will be because they are not implementing the fine. I think there are several (…) I think they’re working by sections. I can’t say how many they are but I see machinery working.\u201d<\/p>\n
D\u00e1valos said he is optimistic the road can be finished this year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Many biologists and researchers fear that opening a road will generate a huge impact on sensitive ecosystems. Photo by Miriam Jemio.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n <\/div>\n
Bisecting the jungle<\/h2>\n
Scientists are concerned about moving earth, deforestation, seasonal flooding and the destruction of vegetation during the road\u2019s construction, along with CRCC\u2019s non-disclosure of mitigation and compensation measures.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a big environmental impact. The land for the Riberalta platform towards Yucumo comes from near the road and from areas of the Cerrado biome where the rufous-headed pygmy tyrant (Pseudotriccus ruficeps<\/em>), among other [birds], lives,\u201d according to Dutch biologist Vincent Vos, who has lived in Riberalta for more than 20 years.<\/p>\n
Vos is concerned about the lack of interest in conserving this type of vegetation, which flourishes all along the road route and where there are many rare species.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is almost nothing left of it,\u201d Vos says of the vegetation from Riberalta to Rurrenabaque, adding that for 50-kilometres along the first stretch there was a densely covered region that was good for birdwatching.<\/p>\n
The fragility of the region’s ecosystem means contruction of the road demands proper monitoring and environmental forecasting, according to Silvia Molina, a researcher at the Center for Labour and Agrarian Development Studies (Cedla<\/a>), an NGO.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the moment of the [initial] intervention, there are effects on biodiversity and ecosystems because you have machinery, oils, asphalt plants, waste from the camps and machinery that must be used very carefully,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn one side we have the savannah of Beni and, beyond, the Amazonian forest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Confidentiality agreements have prevented Molina from identifying ABC professionals responsible for monitoring and supervisory work.<\/p>\n
Safeguards<\/h2>\n
Observers outside Bolivia are also worried.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be difficult to imagine the Rurrenabaque-Riberalta highway project passing the Inter-American Development Bank\u2019s (IADB) safeguards,\u201d says Rebecca Ray, a researcher at the Center for Global Development Policy at Boston University, pointing out that the road cuts through indigenous territory.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Not even Rurrenabaque mayor Anacleto D\u00e1valos, who presides over the town where the road begins, knows details about its constructors or their deadlines. Photo by Miriam Jemio.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n <\/div>\n
Different funders have different environmental standards for their infrastructure projects, says Ray, who co-authored the report China and the Amazon<\/em><\/a>: towards a framework to maximize profits and mitigate risks in infrastructure development<\/em>.<\/p>\n
\u201cProjects that receive IADB financing have regulations that, among other things, strictly limit deforestation and impacts on the different species that inhabit the forests,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
The IADB-funded Montero-Yapacan\u00ed highway in the department of Santa Cruz required an audit of flora and fauna.<\/p>\n
CAF (Latin American Development Bank) and China EximBank, which granted<\/a> Bolivia a $492 million loan for the road), do not have the same standards, Ray argues.<\/p>\n
“The requirements are more general and, for the most part, they give the authority to the same national governments that have asked for funding,” she said.<\/p>\n
For example, the Rurrenabaque-Riberalta highway\u2019s environmental license assigns it a \u2018category II\u2019, meaning it must have an environmental impact assessment (EIA) study. But this is not publicly available.<\/p>\n
To date, the only known violation associated with the project, according to a 2018 ABC statement, relates to a complaint against a Chinese citizen for killing several alligators.<\/p>\n
In April, deputy biodiversity minister Cinthya Silva told newspaper El D\u00eda<\/em><\/a> that, after an investigation, the Company had acknowledged the incident and immediately repatriated the official responsible. It also began a training process to avoid a repeat incidents, she said.<\/p>\n
Following the complaint, senator Mirtha Arce asked for a report from environment minister Carlos Ortu\u00f1o as to whether the ministry had intervened to relocate vulnerable species to a safer environment.<\/p>\n
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