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Cuban doctors aid Bolivian flood victims
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35 dead and more than 340,000 victims of heavy rain
and flooding caused by El Niño
LA PAZ.— More than 100 Cuban
doctors are providing aid for victims of natural
disasters that have hit several Bolivian regions as
a result of the El Niño meteorological phenomenon.
In a communiqué, Rafael Dausá,
Cuban ambassador here, said “We have more than 100
doctors working with evacuees and others affected by
the flooding and rain, and we will be here to help
as long as necessary,” PL reported on February 20.
The Cuban doctors are located in
rural and indigenous communities, particularly in
the eastern departments of Santa Cruz and Beni, as
well as Chaco in Cochabamba.
In mid-January, these specialists
who have been working in Bolivia for more than 12
months, immediately responded to the emergency
situation created by heavy rainfall, with the goal
of guaranteeing medical services to the people
affected.
It was reported that the Cuban
physicians would remain mobilized in 29 evacuation
camps, where they have provided consultations for
more than 50,000 victims.
The services provided by the
Cuban experts in this emergency include medical
attention and free medicines, as well as
preventative health care and hygiene education.
The number of victims from the
heavy rain and flooding covering all of eastern
Bolivia rose to 343,000 at the close of this
edition, according to information from the Civil
Defense reported by PL.
According to reports, the most
affected department was that of Beni (in the
northeast), with more than 80,000 victims.
The number of deaths totaled 35
throughout the country, according to officials, who
said that constant landslides and collapsed roads
were making it difficult to take food to the
affected areas.
Defense Minister Walter San
Miguel explained that the government had decided to
prioritize its efforts on the most affected zones.
According to San Miguel, in the
country’s north, seven of eight provinces in the
department of Beni were flooded.
For its part, the Cattle Farmers
Federation reported that at least 11,000 heads of
cattle had drowned in that area, and that
approximately one million more were in danger of the
same.
Mayor Moisés Shriqui of the
capital city of Trinidad said that more than 5,000
people, most of them women and children, had been
evacuated to shelters and that about 3,000 had
remained in their flooded homes.
Navy troops in motorboats were
providing assistance to people living in communities
near rivers, where waters were rising at the rate of
six centimeters daily, he said.
President Evo Morales toured
areas of the central department of Cochabamba
affected by the heavy rain and flooding. There he
saw the situation of 1,112 families who had lost
their homes, as well as a total of 1,670 hectares of
their fruit crops destroyed.
Likewise, members of the Bolivian
Cabinet were touring most of the country’s regions
to assess damages caused by the rains and to provide
emergency aid.
GOVERNMENT ALLOCATES $15 MILLION
FOR EMERGENCIES
President Evo Morales said that
via decree, an Andean Community Promotion credit of
$15 million had been allocated for emergencies
caused by El Niño.
Morales thanked the international
community for the aid provided in solidarity, and
announced the release of further state funds for
assistance to those affected by natural disasters,
PL reported.
International aid continues to
arrive, and resources from the nation’s General
Treasury were also being mobilized, noted the
president, who met with authorities from different
parts of the department of Santa Cruz, one of the
hardest hit.
Even though the State released
800 tons of food donated via international
solidarity, it has been difficult to get it to some
areas cut off by overflowing rivers and the poor
state of roads.
Translated by Granma International |
