Las políticas de gestión de riesgos en La Paz. Panorama y perspectivas

Abstract

The city which is the seat of the Bolivian government is regularly damaged by events of natural and anthropic origin. This explains why since its foundation, the authorities implemented natural risk preventive measures to limit the exposure of the city and of those elements considered essential to the operation of the urban environment. Policies of risk management evolved over the history of the city including measurements of city planning to allow the prevention of damage in urban spaces and engineering works that are based on the concept of resistance to hazards to withstand threats and to avoid their release.Nonetheless, the successive policy changes have resulted in their partial inefficiency. Whatever the policy of risk management directions retained, they always seem to have been in contradiction with the urban development. Urban development hindered the actions of risk management as a result of the non-observance of the municipal standard, and the lack of anticipation of undesirable effects produced by the engineering works intended to help withstand threats.Conscious of the problem, but without giving up management tools to deal with the risks now anchored in the culture of La Paz, the municipal authorities are exploring new approaches, in particular that of the management of emergency and/or crisis. Since the experience of the hail storm of February 19th, 2002, they set up a Committee of emergency operation, whose operation evolves by experience feedback.

Keywords

• vulnerability
• La Paz
• risk
• injury
• urban management