At Least 50 Die In Widespread Bolivian Floods Even As Drought, Warming Leave Key Glaciers "Doomed"

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BOGOTA (AlertNet) - Widespread flooding in Bolivia, which prompted the government to declare a national emergency last week, shows the vulnerability of one of South America's poorest countries to changing weather patterns linked to climate change.

Landlocked Bolivia, which runs from the rugged Andes to the Amazon jungle, faces a variety of climate change-related pressures, from disappearing glaciers to worsening droughts and more intense and unpredictable rainfall. Combined with rising urban demand for water, the problems suggest a long-term water crisis ahead for the country, analysts say.

The latest disaster has killed at least 50 people and left thousands homeless in Bolivia after weeks of heavy rain triggered flooding and mudslides, with 400 houses destroyed in the capital La Paz alone in a mudslide. n Cochabamba, southeast of La Paz, schools and stadiums were sheltering hundreds of families whose homes were destroyed. In lowland Santa Cruz department, Bolivia's major grain growing region, floods damaged soy, corn and wheat crops. Rivers burst their banks and major roads were unusable.

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Perhaps the most worrying threat to the country’s water supplies, however, has been glacier retreat. Chacaltaya, which at 5,300 m was once the world's highest ski run, is now a rocky, icy slope with a redundant lift. Quoting the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change, Torrez said Bolivia's glaciers were in a "critical" state. Dirk Hoffman, executive director of Bolivian Mountain Institute, painted a darker picture: "There is nothing to be done about the Bolivian glaciers. They are doomed." Bolivian glaciers have lost about half of their volume since 1963, he said.

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http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/flooded-bolivia-faces-long-term-water-woes