In the face of the serious environmental pollution caused by forest firesthe Bolivian government issued a health alert, as the situation even suspended flights at various airports in the east and north of the country.
Luis Arcepresident of Boliviahe explained through social networks that a new measure was implemented in order to protect the health of citizens by the high levels of pollution environmental, as a result of the fires that have occurred in the departments of Pando, Beni, Santa Cruz and La Paz.
“We adopted this measure to protect the health of the population and reduce the adverse effects that mainly affect people with chronic diseases, children, pregnant women and older adults,” the president said on social media.
According to the ruler, the Rapid Response Teams of the Ministry of Healthare sent to various municipalities to assist residents in affected areas, with 6,162 medical consultations in Beni, Pando and Santa Cruz.
Luis Arce added that the fire department and volunteers are working hard to mitigate the fire.
Regarding the situation, the Minister of Health, María Renée Castro, argued that the decision is a response to the rapid and high level of environmental pollution in Bolivia. In fact, she explained that the Bolivian department had an extremely bad environmental pollution index (ICA).
But that’s not all, the ministry also issued an instruction for the Departmental Health Services (Headquarters) so that daily monitoring of the ICA is carried out, which allows appropriate actions to be taken with this index, and thus reduce the population’s exposure to contaminated air.
Among the actions suggested to tackle the serious problem that has taken over Bolivia are the use of glasses and masks, with the intention of reducing the probability of health problems.
Outdoor activities were also requested to be avoided and vulnerable groups were asked to stay at home as much as possible.
It is worth noting that fires in Bolivia are a very recurring problem, where even in 2019, fire destroyed more than 5 million hectares, being considered one of the most serious ecological disasters in the last decade.
In many cases, the fire is attributed to the so-called “clearings“controlled burning in agricultural areas to clear the land for grazing or planting.
Unfortunately, although initially the smoke only affected the municipalities where the fires occurred, the problem has now reached the regional capitals.
With the intention of protecting citizens and due to the smoke in Santa Cruz, which is the most populated city in Bolivia, last Saturday night and this Sunday morning, the Air Navigation and Bolivian Airports (Naabol), they chose to suspend flights in the Viru Viru International Airportwhich is the main one in the country, although it was resumed at 08:00 hours.
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