Bolivia: UN agencies rush aid and support to flood victims

Several United Nations agencies have rushed logistical assistance and humanitarian support to Bolivia, which has been battered by heavy rains killing almost 30 people and affecting about 135,000 others.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP), having taken stock of the magnitude of the flooding, tripled the number of people it is assisting to 41,200, and expects to feed an additional 20,000 by the weekend.

WFP is currently distributing food, including micronutrient fortified foods targeted mainly at women and children to prevent a nutritional crisis, in five Departments, including the most heavily affected Santa Cruz area where 50,000 hectares of crops have been lost. In the Santa Cruz Department alone, WFP is feeding 5,490 families.

“The rains are continuing and we are very worried,” said WFP Peru Country Director Vitoria Ginja, upon returning from the heavily-impacted Department of Cochabamba.

A five-person UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team, deployed by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), arrived in Bolivia yesterday and will support other UN agencies already on the ground.

The UN World Health Organization (WHO)/Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is assisting the Government in providing public health solutions and provide much-needed medicines, as the floods overlap with an outbreak of dengue fever, yellow fever and malaria in the country. It is feared that the El Niño-caused rains will spread the diseases.

Bolivian National Health authorities have declared the flooded areas, encompassing much of the seven of nine heavily affected Departments comprising the country, as “red alert zones.” The Government has also encouraged residents to work together to eliminate the Aedes Aegypti mosquito which spreads dengue fever.

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) is providing fuel to transport desperately-needed shelter supplies from the capital La Paz to Santa Cruz, and its Bureau of Conflict Prevention and Recovery is working with the Government in recovery planning.

Likewise, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is assisting the Government to gauge needs in water and sanitation, protection and education. UNICEF is also providing rations to feed 30,000 children.

Despite contributions made by countries such as China and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as World Vision and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Bolivia still needs 4,400 tents, mosquito nets and medicine kits. The Government plans to launch an appeal for international assistance tomorrow at a donor meeting.