Photo: Juan Carlos Torrejón / EFE
For: EFE
Monday, September 16
Rains and floods of rivers in Bolivia add at least eight deaths and 1,667 families affected
It is estimated that eight people have died from the rains and the flooding of some rivers that have seven on alert of the nine regions of Bolivia , 1, 667 families have been affected and about 1, 050 hectares of crops have been affected.
Seven of the nine departments of Bolivia have declared an “orange alert” due to the rains and flooding of the rivers , while at least 18 Municipalities of the departments of La Paz, Cochabamba, Chuquisaca and Tarija have suffered damages, reported the Vice Minister of Civil Defense, Juan Carlos Calvimontes.
The deputy minister was at the head of a rescue operation of three workers in Santa Cruz who were first surrounded by the sudden flood of the Piraí River and then carried away by the current several kilometers and finally rescued.
The heavy rains of the The last days in Bolivia have caused the death of eight people, six in La Paz and two in Potosí, and the displacement of 4. 612 affected families, according to the latest official report from the Vice Minister of Civil Defense Juan Carlos Calvimontes. pic.twitter.com/U4FAfNDwZA
— Contact South (@ Contact South7) December 18, 2021
“There are three male persons, of legal age, they are workers of a company that extracts aggregates in the area,” he pointed out.
Calvimontes also reported on the rescue of five other people who “were doing tourism” on the other side of the same river where there is abundant vegetation and who were trapped until they finally managed to be evacuated with helicopters. than in the previous case.
“Throughout the department we are in an emergency, we are on red alert,” said the coordinator of the Water Channeling and Regularization Service of the Piraí River (Searpi) of the Government of Cruceña, José Antonio Rivero.
According to Searpi, some points of the river Piraí, which passes near d e Santa Cruz, the largest city in Bolivia, the flow “registered an extraordinary flood of up to five meters high.”
For that reason, has developed a coordination with the affected municipalities and they have done “preventive work and giving alerts before the storm reached them,” explained Rivero.
Civil Defense identified the regions of the tropics of Cochabamba and northern Santa Cruz as the most prone to flooding .
While in cities like La Paz, the rains have produced overflows of urban basins and the risk of landslides or the collapse of some houses built in risk areas on the hills.
As of November, the begins in Bolivia rains both in high areas such as the mountain range and the altiplan or as in the low, which causes the flow of rivers to grow progressively and emergencies arise due to the overflow of their channels in several regions.
It may interest you:
Winter storms to hit California, bringing rain and snow to vacation trips
3443041 Climate change contributed to some of the worst weather events in 2020