Bolivia Floods: Crisis and Response

Heavy rains flooded dozens of Bolivian communities during January causing the loss of crops, homes and personal property.

Plan and other organizations have responded with relief supplies. Longer-term rehabilitation and reconstruction activities are being postponed by continued rains and further flooding.

Hundreds of families have had to move or create makeshift shelters, lacking: safe potable water, basic sanitation, food, cooking supplies, schools and medical facilities

In Santa Cruz, dozens of communities on the shores of the Rio Grande have been overcome by the river, filling their homes, schools and health clinics with as much as 18 inches of mud.

The flood waters have destroyed libraries, school supplies and materials in a number of schools, just days before the new school year was set to begin. It also destroyed birth certificates and ID cards.

The flash floods raced down Bolivia's steep, bare mountainsides, melting mud-brick homes and smashing others with tree trunks and boulders from farther upstream.

In the community of Tiquipaya, Santa Cruz, 22 homes were destroyed with all their contents inside. Since January 20th, the mayor's office has been supplying 150 people with basic relief.

In the community of Jorochito, Santa Cruz, the school was filled with flood water, again damaging key teaching materials. Plan has committed to replace these materials for the school and the students. A school garden will also be started immediately.

In the community of El Salao, Santa Cruz, the flash flood ruptured a natural gas pipeline, leading to a fire that consumed a number of homes. The natural gas company, Transredes, has assumed full responsibility to rebuild the homes and other infrastructure damaged by the flood and fire.

At least fifteen communities in the Altiplano have lost their crops due to the expansion of Lake Titicaca into shallow areas along its shoreline.