LA PAZ, Bolivia — Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz declared a nationwide state of emergency Saturday as the country struggles with devastating drought and braces for destructive seasonal floods driven by an intensifying El Nino weather pattern.
The presidential decree unlocks emergency government funding, accelerates disaster relief efforts, and orders the deployment of extra rescue teams alongside the armed forces and police to the hardest-hit areas across the nation.
Paz warned the public that the climate cycle poses grave dangers for the South American country. The phenomenon will have “very severe impacts in terms of drought and floods,” Paz said, stressing that Bolivia needs “the cooperation of all institutions.”
Drought and Flood Threats Collide
Bolivia is already confronting severe agricultural and humanitarian strain. According to a government report released this week, persistent drought conditions have affected 78,000 families across six of the nation’s nine departments. The dry spell has also killed more than 75,000 cattle, devastating rural livelihoods.
At the same time, authorities warned that the onset of the rainy season brings elevated hazards of flash flooding and mudslides. Bolivia has suffered severe flood damage in recent history, including December 2025 inundations in the eastern Santa Cruz region that left dozens of people dead.
Neighboring countries are also enduring volatile climate shocks linked to the pattern. The Chilean capital of Santiago just registered its rainiest October on record, while deadly wildfires in Peru claimed at least 12 lives last month.
Global Risks from a Rapidly Strengthening Pattern
El Nino is a natural, recurring climate cycle occurring every two to seven years, marked by unusual warming of surface waters across the equatorial Pacific Ocean. The shifts disrupt atmospheric circulation, altering global wind, temperature, and precipitation patterns.
The current system emerged in June and quickly gained strength, prompting meteorologists to warn that it may rank among the strongest cycles on record. The United Nations recently cautioned that the event is “heading off the charts,” threatening major disruptions across Latin America, Asia, the Pacific, and parts of Africa.
Scientists and researchers estimate that the extreme heat and volatile conditions generated between June 2026 and February 2027 could lead to around 451,000 excess deaths globally, with impoverished populations facing the greatest danger.
The World Meteorological Organization reported a nearly 100 percent probability that El Nino will persist at least through February 2027. While forecasters project the pattern will reach its maximum intensity toward the close of 2026, officials warn that secondary fallout will likely reverberate well into 2027.
