Floods in Bolivia, Peru leave at least 64 dead

La Paz, Lima (ANTARA News) - Floods in Bolivia and Peru have left at least 64 people dead and thousands under water in recent weeks, authorities in both Andean countries said Wednesday.

DPA news agency reports that areas in the remote Amazon Rainforest were particularly badly affected by the rain and the situation in the Bolivian Amazonian town of Trinidad was dramatic.

After a dam broke, 80 per cent of the town of 90,000 people north-east of La Paz was under water, Bolivian media reported Wednesday.

Elsewhere in the country, some 47,000 people were said to be affected by the floods, and the Bolivian government has requested 10 million dollars in international aid.

There is a shortage of food and drinking water, medicine and construction materials for emergency accommodation, Bolivian media said, citing UN representative Vitoria Ginja in La Paz.

Emergency authorities in Peru said some 75,000 people were affected by the floods, particularly in the rainforest region of around the town of Ucayali, 800 kilometres east of Lima and close to the Brazilian border.

Thousands of homes and numerous roads suffered damage, and rescue teams took almost 110,000 tonnes of food to be distributed in the flooded areas.

According to meteorologists, heavy rain in Bolivia and Peru is an effect of the regional climate phenomena known as La Nina and El Nino.

La Nina, which brought the rain, follows El Nino, which is set off every 4-5 years due to the warming of surface water in the Pacific Ocean.

Both climate phenomena wreak havoc on the region`s weather. While La Nina sparked heavy rain in Bolivia and Peru, Paraguay suffered a severe drought in September which led to serious bush fires. (*)