Bajo Llojeta is still at risk of landslides

Several families are still residing in Bajo Llojeta. They do it even though there is a risk that a new dungeon could exist, but they also do it because they have nowhere to go. Genera Flores is one of the neighbors who is experiencing the worst days of her life. Every day you have to try to get something out of your belongings that are still in your home. He doesn’t sleep at night, even though he tries. She wants to get everything she can to find another place to sleep. According to the authorities, there are still risks of landslides in that La Paz neighborhood.

The La Paz areas of Bajo Llojeta and Irpavi II are the most vulnerable in the Government headquarters due to the high risk of landslides and damage due to the accumulation of water. The rainfall generated landslides that affected both homes and main roads, iIncreasing the need for preventive and mitigation measures.

Despite the preventive actions, from the Mayor’s Office of La Paz and from the Vice Ministry of Civil Defense warn that there is still a risk of new landslides, especially if precipitation exceeds 6.5 millimeters per square meter. These days, days of rain were predicted at the Government headquarters.

“We are talking about the same areas as last year (Bajo Llojeta and Irpavi II), specifically in the southern area, where all the waters received by the municipality end up converging in this basin, the so-called southern basin. So, the risks are the same as last year,” said the Vice Minister of Civil Defense, Juan Carlos Calvimontes.

The authority explained that these areas continue to be unstable due to their geographical characteristics and illegal constructions that do not respect urban planning regulations, which puts the population at risk. The vice minister explained that in Bajo Llojeta an overlapping of boundaries between the municipality of La Paz and Achocalla was evident.

The most serious thing, Calvimontes pointed out, is that they had access to documents from the residents of the municipality of Achocalla, which would have granted property titles to the inhabitants of the area, through professionals who were dismissed at the time for irregular conduct in the exercise of their duties. One of these officials, an architect who was not an architect, granted settlement and property titles, although he was dismissed, without the issued documents being annulled.

The La Paz Mayor’s Office also sees risks in the event that rainfall continues to fall at the Government headquarters. That is why the municipality asked residents to leave their homes to authorized shelters or their relatives’ homes. Genara Flores, the neighbor of Bajo Llojeta, said that they have nowhere to go and that she is now taking care of her children. She wants to remove all her belongings from her home and then look for a place to live.

“We are a big family. My cousin is a single woman and worked for years to have what she has, and now she is about to lose it. We went through the same thing with my husband and my children. What we have is years of work and we need to get our things out. We ask the mayors of La Paz and Achocalla, and also the company (Kantutani), to put their hands on their chests and work to avoid more misfortunes,” Flores said.

In the last five years, the residents of Bajo Llojeta faced at least two difficult moments: the “mega slide” of April 2019 and the recent dungeon on the night of Saturday, November 23. It is presumed that the avalanche descended strongly from the area of ​​the private cemetery of Los Andes, where excavations were carried out without authorization from the Mayor’s Office of La Paz.

In both situations, people lost their property. In both moments There are more than 100 homes affected and dozens of affected families and injured people who seek to overcome the shock, but live in fear of a new avalanche.

The Bajo Llojeta area is part of the macrodistrict of Cotahuma, which is geographically located “below” the city of El Alto towards the southern area of ​​the city of La Paz. It is a strategic sector, where you access Satélite City in the city of El Alto, to the traditional neighborhood of Sopocachi, and to all areas of the South of La Paz, from Obrajes to Mallasa.

In the sector Several private cemeteries were also installed, such as the Jardín cemetery, Los Andes, among others, who took at least ten hectares, which are between natural terraces and capricious gray ravines, which stand as the anteroom to the mythical Valley of the Moon.