Photo courtesy of the Fundación Abril.
At 70 kilometres long, the Rocha is the longest river running through the Cochabamba valley. Until the mid-twentieth century, its clean water was used to irrigate crops and the riverbanks were a popular place for a day out.
Today, the River Rocha is polluted by waste water from homes and industry and rubbish dumped by the seven municipalities it runs through. The river is on course for irreversible deterioration. Five out of ten families in Bolivia are not connected to drainage or adequate treatment systems for waste water, which flows straight into rivers and lakes: 70% of the pollution in the River Rocha is due to untreated waste water.
