Preparations made by dozens of communities in the Bolivian Amazon region have helped families in flood-affected areas cope with heavy rains.
Practical Action staff working in villages in and around the flooded riverside towns of Rurrenebaque and San Buenaventura have been working alongside the local authorities for weeks in the face of intense flooding to ensure key messages and support are being received and used.
They have also been supporting local government efforts to distribute emergency food and seeds to help ensure farming families in remote villages have the resources to be able to eat now, and later in the year.
This is the second climate-related disaster to hit the region in months after wildfires tore through many indigenous farms during periods of extreme drought in late 2023 and last year.
Practical Action colleagues are already supporting efforts to measure the losses and the damage suffered by the indigenous Tacana communities in the face of extreme weather.
Yolanda Frias Nogales co-ordinates Practical Action’s work in the Amazonas region. She said:
“Our programmes in Bolivia are all linked to an approach which enable communities to best cope with emergencies in the short, grow food in the medium term and develop their livelihoods and resilience to climate change in the long term.
“The flooding has been awful for everyone affected, but it has demonstrated the impact our work can have.
“People in flood-affected communities are using the flood shelters they have designed with us, meaning women are able to cook, wash and sleep without fear for their own safety.
“Solar powered communications systems are up and working in stranded villages which are without electricity.
“They are providing a vital link to the outside work, enabling the communities upstream to have a two-way dialogue with the authorities. Communities pass on important information about rain and water levels and they receive alerts and find out when emergency supplies will arrive.
“The emergency brigades we have helped them form have been playing a vital role, leading sharing of information and co-ordinating the distribution of supplies.
“We are also working with the municipal government, to ensure we can understand the losses and damages that communities have suffered. This will provide absolutely essential evidence of the impact of climate change on indigenous people, like the Tacana, who live and work in the Amazon.”
Practical Action are supporting communities in which we have been working for many years by providing emergency food in the short term.
In the longer term, staff will distribute seeds for fast-yielding crops and by supporting livelihoods such as agroforestry, production of indigenous fruits and vegetables and processing of products such as textiles, soaps and jewellery.
Yolanda added: “I would like to extend a big thank you to all donors who have helped fund this work. There are almost too many to mention, but without their support, many more lives and livelihoods would be at risk.”
Donors include the Z Zurich Foundation, The Flemish Fund for Tropical Forest, Lloyds Foundation, the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation and EkoEnergy ecolabel, The Canadian Foundation for local initiatives , The French Development Agency and the Northwick Trust.