Bolivia, rainy season has affected more than 14,000 families

teleSUR English

*Homes suffered structural damage due to heavy rains in recent months *Legislative assembly has more than 200 million dollars for disaster prevention sleeping *Immediate future of natural phenomena is uncertain *Last year the country endured the largest fires ever recorded in its history

Transcript

00:00In Bolivia, 16 people lost their lives in the last two months as a result of the raining

00:05season, and more than 14,000 families were affected, according to the civil defense report.

00:10Our correspondent, Fredy Morales, tells us the details.

00:16Orlando is a teacher. In his spare time, he built his own house in the Lojita Bajo neighborhood in

00:22the city of La Paz, a neighborhood that, like Orlando, has yet to recover from a flood that

00:27inundated some 40 homes a little over a month ago.

00:34This is our home. We have built it to live in, to inhabit it, because we need our own space,

00:43so that we are not sometimes dependent on relatives who welcome us very affectionately,

00:48but we are not used to it.

00:50The house built by Orlando did not suffer structural damage, but others in the neighborhood

01:00were not as lucky, and are now part of a dramatic statistic that began two months ago,

01:05when the first rains fell.

01:10In total, there are 36 municipalities affected, 229 communities, 10,880 families affected,

01:205,133 families affected, a total of 16,013 families, 355 houses affected,

01:29194 houses completely destroyed, and 16 people have lost their lives.

01:40These figures, when the rainy season is just beginning, because here the popular saying,

01:44January little, February crazy, is repeated, do not make a dent in the opposition majority

01:50in the Legislative Assembly, where more than $1.3 billion in international credits are sleeping.

01:56$200 million are for disaster prevention.

02:02It was earmarked for rehabilitation work in the municipality of La Paz,

02:06in the municipality of Calchaque in Potosi, and in the municipality of Cobiha.

02:13Unfortunately, this credit was not approved by the Assembly.

02:17This has obviously led the President to make the decision to provide us with up to

02:21$20 million Bolivian pesos to be able to undertake prevention and containment work.

02:32Meanwhile, the immediate future of natural phenomena is uncertain after a severe period

02:38of drought that maintained in this region the so-called El Niño phenomenon.

02:45We have gone from a phase of El Niño phenomenon to a phase of La Niña phenomenon,

02:48which was activated in October and then went to a neutral phase. What will probably happen

02:52in the next months is that we will go to a Niño phenomenon phase, the warming of the

02:56surface waters of the Pacific Ocean. Let's see what's happened then.

02:59Last year, the country endured the largest fires ever recorded in its history,

03:08with some 10 million hectares raised by fire. The rainy season lasts until March,

03:14but these periods, due to climate change, are now variable and do not obey the calendar.

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