La Paz at the limit: from the garbage crisis to the energy opportunity

The city of La Paz, a dynamic and complex urban centre since its foundation, has grown without urban planning consistent with its abrupt and capricious topography nor with its accelerated demographic expansion. This lack of structural adequacy has resulted in a sanitary and environmental crisis.

A simple, efficient, and profoundly human technology

As shown by the reconstruction of the system we present, since ancient times, rural communities in Gansu developed systems for producing methane gas from organic waste.

Garbage, organic waste, when biodegraded, when decomposed without oxygen, produces methane, which can be converted into energy, health, and well‑being if a modern, decentralized model based on proven technologies is adopted.
This example demonstrates that La Paz should not and is not condemned to face a disastrous future.

The gas is gone

In addition to the possibility of achieving change from what is currently harmful and is enormously affecting the society of several Andean cities, Bolivian society as a whole warns of the rapidly approaching calamitous reality, the historical antecedents that show the Bolivian state as the country that once had the largest natural gas reserves, that is, butane gas, in the entire continent.

History also records that past Bolivian state administrations, not very positive, undertook the task of selling natural gas to Argentina and Brazil, charging for the thousand cubic feet at possibly very low prices.

At the same time, the Bolivian State invested, with great publicity, in the installation of urban and rural networks for the distribution of natural gas, trusting that the gas resource would sustain the country’s energy development for decades. However, the administrations that followed that period could not foresee a painful reality: despite all the technical information available, the gas that had been a source of immense profits for Bolivia was running out.

Today, that truth can no longer be hidden. The butane gas that provides energy to thousands of homes is coming to an end. The infrastructure built with optimism and propaganda now faces an energy void that threatens to generate an enormous national crisis.

If attention is not paid to the problems of garbage and the existence of gas comes to an end, two great catastrophes would be generated that foreshadow highly negative times for the new generations of Bolivians.

Possible pathologies could be generated in La Paz due to the irresponsible handling of urban solid waste which, as has already been seen in the cases presented, are the sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of the citizens of La Paz and also of other regions such as Cochabamba, where in December 2025 the tragic death of two citizens was recorded, attributed to a so‑called “garbage war,” based on the resistance of the population living around the solid waste deposit in the Kara‑kara area, residents who were tired of the stench generated by the accumulated garbage, in the presence of elements that, as in other cities, are possible generators of pathogens that emerge from that garbage dump.

These cases presented in this note show the need to generate awareness that distances society from the toxic practice generated by corruption. It is well known that those who have passed through the administration of governments and autonomous municipal councils now enjoy the supposed prestige of being considered the richest men in South America. 

A fact that is contrasted by the attitude of presidents such as the leader of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, who states: “When no one steals from the state coffers, the money is enough for everyone.”

Unfortunately, and apparently, cities like La Paz unfortunately do not have administrators of municipal affairs who commit to providing solutions to the problems generated by garbage and to what will also largely be the energy crisis caused by the lack of natural gas for urban distribution.

In contrast to that highly inconsiderate behavior, there are countries where forms less close to the unhealthy habit of corruption installed in municipal and national governments have been achieved.

It has been seen, with the presentation of the ancestral Chinese bell systems, that garbage problems can be harnessed; this was put into practice perhaps thousands of years ago. However, not only the ancient but not archaic Chinese action models are still present today.

The energy crisis generated by the presence of fuels derived from petroleum, and as can be seen, the hydrocarbon industry has brought almost all industrialized countries to their knees. After Russia began the invasion war against Ukraine, the critical reaction of the Western world generated an economic crisis in the vast Russian territory. As retaliation for that reaction, Russia—one of the countries that sells the most hydrocarbons on the planet—punished the industrialized Western world by raising the prices of its energy source for all industrialized countries, especially the European Union and NATO, whose inhabitants had to make real efforts to prevent the population from suffering cold winters typical of the countries of the northern hemisphere of the planet. However, there was one country, small but great in its actions.