The government of Evo Morales took this decision after more than 22 thousand families were affected by heavy rains. Of the 9 departments, 5 already have flooding problems.
The Bolivian government decree of national emergency due to heavy rains and severe flooding in recent weeks have affected 5 of the 9 provinces of the country, leaving a toll of 10 dead and more than 22 thousand families homeless.
This Friday, President Evo Morales has decided to sign the decree declaring the emergency, after visiting a shantytown south of La Paz, where on Thursday more than 70 houses collapsed due to landslide.
According to the decree, “declares state of national emergency throughout the territory of the Multicountry of Bolivia, due to the adverse effects of floods, flash floods, hailstorms, landslides and swollen rivers that have been raising in the country” . But the decree does not indicate the amount of money the government allocated to the emergency.
The Civil Defense director, Rafael Uria, said that 22,685 families are affected by floods, 501 by hailstorms that decimated crops in the valley region 196 by landslides and 816 families by floods.
The same decree states that the national emergency applies especially in regions most affected by the rains and floods as are La Paz, Santa Cruz, Cochabamba, Chuquisaca and Beni.
The fact that the national emergency declaration allows you to unlock the aid to meet the victims. But it also involves the mobilization of additional personnel for civil defense and military, the extraordinary allocation of economic resources and securing state funding for countries and international agencies to address climate disasters.
The Civil Defense reported that 40% of all families affected are in the region of Santa Cruz, although the government is quite concerned also expressed by the Amazonian department of Beni, where major rivers converge Bolivians.
The Weather Service said the rains, which have exceeded the averages for the time, were due to “climatic variations caused by El Niño Phenomenon,”and predicted that precipitation will continue during the month of February and covering the whole country.
