The Beni Plain

The Beni Plain and Gran Chaco Plain have the two best aquifers in the country. However, the Beni Plain (map unit 1) has depths to aquifer of only 30-90 meters and the Gran Chaco Plains depth to aquifer ranges from 130-150 meters and greater than 180-200 meters. The Easter Andes and Subandean zones or map unit 3 depth to the aquifer is usually less than 100 meters. The Brazilian Shield, Altiplano, and Western Andes (map units 4 and 5) usually have a depth to the aquifer or less than 90 meters. With the large seasonal variation in rainfall comes large seasonal variations in water table depths. It is very common for wells to go dry in the Altiplano during the dry season.
One main problem in developing groundwater resources in Bolivia is
However, there are many different well sites around Lake Titicaca. These well sites can be thought of as having geologic and subsurface hydrological conditions representative of Lupalaya based on proximity. Figure 5 below shows the well sites that Quintanilla et al. (1995) ran hydrochemical analysis on. In addition, Lupalaya is shown on the map. Notice that well sites 20, 23, and 24 are all within 40 kilometers of Lupalaya. Based on physical proximity, these wells would show representative characteristics to a well drilled in Lupalaya. Locations 20, 23, and 24 are sites Pariri, Estacion Belen, and Achacachi Norte respectively. Sites 23 and 24 are in the Achacachi sector and site 20 is in the Keka sector. Many of the wells tested around Lake Titicaca would show very similar ground water characteristics to a perspective well drilled in
(1995) also studied the chemical charactersitics of the surcface water in the Lake Titicaca drainage basin. The tributaries of Lake Titcaca deposit all thier sediments when entering the lake so the lake is not above TDS values. However, the rivers oftentimes are above 1000 mg/L TDS. There also did not appear to be any man made contamination in Lake Titicaca. However, Lake Titicaca did test values of Tungsten ranging from 0.3 to 7.2 mg/L. The limit for human consumption is 0.05 mg/L. Tin values ranged from 0.1-0.8 mg/L. The majority of these values were above the 0.2 mg/L allowed for human cosumption as stated by Quintanilla et al. (1995). Therefore, the surface waters found in the Lake Titicaca drainage basin are assumed to unfit for human