Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz declared a nationwide state of emergency on October 31 to free up resources as El Nino threatens severe drought and flooding across the country, according to Al Jazeera and the Straits Times. The Bolivia El Nino emergency decree is intended to support the response to the weather pattern’s effects.
The decree calls for deploying more rescue teams in hard-hit areas, according to the Straits Times. It allows for additional rescue teams and calls for coordination between national and regional authorities, the armed forces and police, according to DW.
Paz said El Nino will have "very severe impacts in terms of drought and floods" and that Bolivia needs "the cooperation of all institutions," according to DW.
A government report this week said drought is affecting 78,000 families in six of Bolivia’s nine departments and has led to the loss of more than 75,000 cattle, according to Al Jazeera. These figures come from that single government report as cited by outlets, and they have not been independently confirmed.
Authorities have warned of potential floods, flash floods and landslides as the rainy season begins, according to DW. Bolivia is prone to flooding. In December 2025, floods in the Santa Cruz region killed dozens of people, according to Al Jazeera.
El Nino is a periodic warming of Pacific sea surface temperatures that disrupts global weather, often bringing drought to some regions and heavy rain to others, according to DW. The current event developed in June and has strengthened rapidly, according to the same report.
The region has seen other extreme weather. Neighbouring Peru’s wildfires have killed at least 12 people, and Chile’s capital, Santiago, recorded its rainiest October ever, according to Al Jazeera and the Straits Times.
What comes next is continued warning. The UN says El Nino is expected to peak in December and that its impact could last years. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported a nearly 100 percent likelihood that the event continues through February 2027.
Several details remain unclear. The government has not responded beyond Paz’s quoted remarks, and the decree text was not available for review. Coverage relied on summaries and excerpts, not full decree details or local regional reporting, and the list of drought impacts in DW’s report was truncated in the source text.
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This article was written with AI assistance from the published reporting listed above. It is part of the World Brief daily news podcast.