President Rodrigo Paz signed a national decree on Saturday declaring a nationwide state of emergency in Bolivia to mobilize resources and deploy rescue teams as severe droughts and floods threaten communities.
President Rodrigo Paz signed a national decree on Saturday.
The measure establishes the state of emergency to accelerate the distribution of financial and human resources to regions under strain. The measure authorizes the deployment of additional rescue teams to hard-hit areas and calls for coordination among regional authorities, national agencies, the armed forces, and the police.
In a televised address to the nation, President Paz stressed that the country has made enormous efforts to protect the environment and minimize the consequences of this year’s weather disruption. The decree aims to secure the necessary funds and personnel to respond to natural disasters while seeking international cooperation to assist affected families.
Water Shortages Affect 78,000 Bolivian Families
According to an official government report released during the week, water shortages are affecting approximately 78,000 families across six of Bolivia’s nine departments. Communities in 63 areas have already been affected by drought, while the livestock sector struggles with shortages of animal feed.
In his address to the nation, Paz warned that the unfolding climate event poses severe dangers to both rural livelihoods and national economic activity.
This will be a phenomenon that will have very severe impacts in terms of drought and floods, and we need the cooperation of all institutions.
President Rodrigo Paz, via Al Jazeera
Weather Disruptions Spread Across South America
While drought conditions currently dominate several departments, authorities are also preparing for the onset of the rainy season, which brings risks of flash floods and landslides. Bolivia remains vulnerable to extreme precipitation, having suffered deadly floods in the Santa Cruz region in December 2025 that killed dozens of people.
The domestic crisis unfolds as climatic disruptions hit South America. In neighboring Peru, wildfires and rising temperatures have killed at least 12 people while contributing to the spread of dengue, which has killed 81 people this year. Further south, Chile’s capital, Santiago, recorded its rainiest October on record.
Global Scientific Models Project Peak in 2026
El Niño is a periodic climate cycle.
It is driven by the periodic warming of sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, which alters global wind patterns, atmospheric pressure, and rainfall distribution.
The United Nations warned that the ongoing El Niño is heading off the charts and could reach unprecedented strength, potentially exceeding measurement scales used over the past four decades. The phenomenon is anticipated to bring severe climate impacts across Latin America, East and Southern Africa, Asia, and the Pacific region. Global scientific models project that the phenomenon will peak at the end of 2026, with secondary disruptions expected to continue well into 2027.
In early September, the World Meteorological Organization reported a nearly 100 percent likelihood that these conditions will persist through February 2027.
Researchers have estimated that unusually high temperatures linked to the current weather cycle could cause around 451,000 excess deaths worldwide.
Poorer nations are expected to face a disproportionate share of the overall impact.