Monitoring Location: Colcapirhua
The location of sampling is in the municipality of Colcapirhua at some 4 km. south of the Avenida Blanco Galindo. At this point, 8 samplings were conducted with the participation of the University I Patiño (USIP), University Privada Abierta Latinoamericana (UPAL), the Simón Bolivar school and volunteers. This sampling process was conducted with the MMAyA manual adapted to the environmental conditions of Bolivia.
The current monitoring project of the River Rocha is conducted taking into account three different locations (Sacaba, Cercado and Colcapirhua), in which it is taken into account the manual for the evaluation of the biological conditions of bodies of water, which is adapted to the environmental conditions of Bolivia according to the Environmental law 1333 of April 27, 1992. The manual outlines the use of benthic macro-invertebrates in monitoring the water in accordance with the Ministry of Environment and Water (MMAyA) and according to chapter III of the classification of bodies of water of Article IV that references the conduction of the classification of bodies of water in function to their use. The goal of the manual is to supply a tool that is easy to manage for the technicians in charge of carrying out the monitoring, prevention, and control of the quality of the water, by means of the use of macro-invertebrados.
Because the watershed of the River Rocha is one of the most important watersheds in the Department of Cochabamba, approximately 76% of the population of the department lies within it. The central point of the watershed consists of the RiverRocha, whose main riverbed has an expanse of nearly 81 km.
The diverse anthropogenic activities has brought about environmental degradation in the river. The analysis of the state of these rivers are evaluated by means of aquatic macro-invertebrates that are used as indicators for the quality of the water in these ecosystems.
The goal of the initiative (Face the River Rocha), along with the project “Monitoring and Biological Evaluation with Civilian Participation of the River Rocha”, is to communally evaluate the water quality of the River Rocha in the municipalities of Sacaba, Cercado, and Colcapirhua by applying a methodology of biological indicators based on the analysis of the alteration of those communities of organisms that inhabited the river ecosystems.