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Author: Monica Machicao
EL ALTO, Bolivia (Reuters) – In the Bolivian mountain town of El Alto, a series of colorful corrugated metal roofs – blue, orange, red and green – momentarily distract from the terrifying scene below: a precipitous drop inches (cm) from the house, locally known as “suicide homes” because of the high risk which residents take over.
A thin row of flimsy structures hangs on the edge of a cliff formed of earth with a steep drop of hundreds of feet (meters) to the rocky escarpment below. Experts and city officials say the cliff is eroding, making the houses even more dangerous – hence their nickname.
The unsafe houses often serve as workplaces for Aymara shamans, known as yatirs, where they make offerings to Pachamama, or Mother Earth. But heavy rains and global warming are increasingly undermining the foundations of buildings.
“The precipice in this valley is 90 degrees,” said Gabriel Parry, municipal secretary for water, sanitation, environmental management and risk in the El Alto mayor’s office.
“That is exactly why we want them to leave this place, if they don’t want to leave we will have to use force.”
The shamans, however, hold on, despite the back door of the rickety homes only having a narrow platform before the ground collapses completely.
“We will not move from this place, because this is our daily workplace,” said Yatiri Manuel Mamani, making an offering to Pachamam by the fire in front of his house.
“But we will take care of the land, especially the rainwater, we will channel it so that the water goes somewhere else.”
El Alto, and the mountainous political capital of La Paz nestled in the valley below, often boggles the mind with a sheer landscape that mirrors the surrounding Andean mountains. This prompted local authorities to build cable cars to help people get around.
And that landscape is becoming more treacherous as weather patterns become more extreme, something exacerbated by climate change.
Gabriel Lopez Chiva, another yatiri, said he was confident, however, that Pachamama would protect him.
“We can do an offering ceremony, we do it as a payment and this way the land will never move because Pachamama needs an offering. It is like giving food and this way this place will not move. On the contrary, it will stabilize,” he said.
