I am off to Santa Cruz! The flooding has continued in 8 out of 9 departments of Bolivia. Due to El Niño, the rains and flooding are worse this year than they have been in a while. Santa Cruz is the department worst hit. As of yesterday, there were 12,000 families displaced in that department alone and a total of 30,000 families displaced throughout the country. Some of these families will have gone to live with relatives where there is no flooding. Some of these families will have gone to camps that are being set up for them. I saw pictures today of families living in the back of a truck, and one woman living on the side of the highway.

I am going as part of the evaluation team to Santa Cruz to determine what the actual situation is on the ground. No one really knows. There is a surprising lack of information available. The response is divided up into sectors – water and sanitation, health, education, food, etc. Each has a government lead, with the NGO sector supporting it (or at least that is how it is supposed to work). UNICEF is lead organization for water and sanitation, education and protection. And that’s where I come in.

For the first 3 or 4 days I will be evaluating the water and sanitation situation in the affected areas. In other words, I will have to determine how many people are without adequate water and sanitation and what can be done about it. The team will then come back to La Paz, but I will stay on to try to organize a response in the water and sanitation sector. I will need to organize clean water supplies, including rain water harvesting and treating water that has become contaminated. I will also have pumps at my disposal to clean out wells that have been flooded. If people have no where to go to the bathroom – that’s my job too! It should all be very interesting, and quite the learning experience!

I leave bright and early Fri morning. All of this was just confirmed today. It’s a little crazy around here at the moment trying to prepare! Unfortunately, to those who were looking forward to my tales of Carnaval, I won’t be able to go. The experience I am going to gain will be invaluable, and of course I want to help where I am needed, but I really was looking forward to Carnaval! Hopefully I will be able to continue to update my blog from the field!