Flooding in Bolivia

Residents of Bolivia’s low-lying Beni region are accustomed to flooding. Every February and March, rivers routinely burst their banks due to melting snowpack in the Andes Mountains and near daily rainstorms associated with the wet season. However, the floods Bolivians faced in February 2014 were unusually severe.

Weeks of heavy rains caused the Beni and Mamoré Rivers to swell, swamping more than 40,000 hectares (100,000 acres) of land. According to media reports, floodwaters killed at least 60 people and damaged the homes of more than 60,000. Large numbers of livestock were also affected. Preliminary estimates suggest at least 100,000 cattle were killed by floods, and hundreds of thousands more are threatened by starvation.
The natural-color image at the top of this page was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite on February 17, 2014. For comparison, the second image shows conditions along the rivers under more typical conditions on March 28, 2013 (as seen by Terra). Sediment-laden flood and river water appears brown; flood water with less sediment appears black. A false-color view of the same area available here makes it easier to distinguish between flood water and background vegetation.

“What is happening, particularly in Beni province, is something never before seen in the history of Bolivia,” said president Evo Morales during the midst of the crisis.

• References and Related Reading

• Ecologist (2014, March 11) Bolivia and Britain—a tale of two floods. Accessed March 13, 2014.
• Encyclopedia of Earth (2008, August 6) Beni savanna. Accessed March 13, 2014.
• Food and Agriculture Organization Bolivia: Country Pasture/Forage Resources. Accessed March 13, 2014.
• Floodlist (2014, February 27) Floods Worsen in Beni, Bolivia. Accessed March 13, 2014.
• International Business Times (2014, February 19) Vast Areas of Bolivia and Brazil Flooded After Weeks of Torrential Rains. Accessed March 13, 2014.
• Oooska News (2014, February 26) Nearly 60,000 Households Affected by Bolivian Floods. Accessed March 13, 2014.
• ReliefWeb (2014, February 28) Eyewitness: Bolivia Floods. Accessed March 13, 2014.
• ReliefWeb (2014, February 19) Bolivia Flood: Affected Areas. Accessed March 13, 2014.
• Seiler, C. et al. (2013, January) Climate Variability and Trends in Bolivia. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 52 (1) 132-146.

NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Adam Voiland.

Instrument(s): 

Aqua - MODIS-NASA