{"id":30502,"date":"2016-11-22T02:53:59","date_gmt":"2016-11-22T02:53:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/bolivia-declares-national-emergency-amid-drought\/"},"modified":"2016-11-22T02:58:30","modified_gmt":"2016-11-22T02:58:30","slug":"bolivia-declares-national-emergency-amid-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/bolivia-declares-national-emergency-amid-drought\/","title":{"rendered":"Bolivia declares national emergency amid drought"},"content":{"rendered":"

{The lack of water has sparked protests in Bolivia and forced President Evo Morales to declare a national emergency.}<\/p>\n

Bolivian President Evo Morales has declared a national emergency over a lack of water caused by a severe and prolonged drought.<\/p>\n

Morales said on Monday, that national and local governments are authorised to use state resources to attack the problem.<\/p>\n

Much of the high-altitude capital already receives water for just three hours every three days, because reservoirs serving the city are nearly dry.<\/p>\n

Morales said Bolivians “have to be prepared for the worst”. <\/p>\n

The El Nino weather phenomenon in the Pacific has caused or exacerbated the drought, which has battered farms and cattle ranches.<\/p>\n

The country’s weather service says no rain is expected until early December.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, authorities declared water rationing in La Paz to be a permanent measure as the drought in Bolivia worsens.<\/p>\n

The three main dams that supply water to the city are almost dry.<\/p>\n

The main Ajuan Khota dam is at one percent of capacity, while the other two dams are averaging eight percent capacity.<\/p>\n

This has led to water cuts in some neighbourhoods for the first time. The Corque municipality has been hit particularly hard, according to a report from the Pan American Health Organisation, and 70 percent of the population lacks drinking water.<\/p>\n

{{Protests}}<\/p>\n

Across La Paz, residents have seen their taps dry up for 60 hours at a time, followed by 12-hour periods to replenish their supplies.<\/p>\n

Morales sacked his top state water authorities and apologised for extended water rationing in the capital.<\/p>\n

The neighbouring city of El Alto is also concerned about the lack of water. A week of protests by frustrated residents has escalated tensions.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, leaders of the Federation of Town Councils, known as Fejuve, held officials and water authorities hostage after the minister of environment and water, Alexandra Moreira, failed to turn up for a meeting to report on a water supply project in the city of El Alto.<\/p>\n

Police were eventually called to release the hostages, including Ruben Mendez, Bolivia’s deputy water minister.<\/p>\n

Riots over water have broken out in Bolivia in the past. In 2004, riots resulted in the control of water being handed over from private companies to the state.<\/p>\n

In recent decades, Bolivian glaciers have shrunk drastically and affected the lives of millions who depend on glacier melt for water.<\/p>\n

\"Bolivia<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{The lack of water has sparked protests in Bolivia and forced President Evo Morales to declare a national emergency.} Bolivian President Evo Morales has declared a national emergency over a lack of water caused by a severe and prolonged drought. Morales said on Monday, that national and local governments are authorised to use state resources […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-30502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30502\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30502"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=30502"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=30502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}