La Paz, September 16 (RHC)-- Bolivian President Luis Arce has personally delivered aid to areas affected by recent fires.  

In the context of the fight against the fires affecting Bolivia, the president met this weekend with the mayors of the department of Beni (northeast) and conveyed to them the commitment of the national Government to replace housing and productive capacity to families affected by the disaster.

The meeting was held in the departmental capital, Trinidad.  President Arce said that they have programs "to regenerate and replace everything that has been damaged, where there is housing affected by the fires, our commitment as a national government to go and replace and build for our brothers who today have been left without housing."

He also told them that actions will be put in place to restore the productive capacity of the affected small producers and their families, on which their livelihood depends, such as replacing livestock, planting fruit trees and others.

During the meeting, Arce delivered 30 tons of humanitarian aid, including flour, rice, sugar, noodles, milk, water, oil and other foods that will be delivered to the mayors of the affected municipalities.

In Beni, the second department most affected by the fire after Santa Cruz, eight municipalities have been declared in a disaster situation so far.  Arce stressed to the mayors: "The work does not stop, we continue coordinating prompt and effective actions that allow us to attack the fire from different fronts."

The head of state was accompanied by the ministers of the Environment, Alan Lisperguer; of Planning, Sergio Cusicanqui; of Health, Maria Renée Castro; and of Defense, Edmundo Novillo, who also listened to the needs of the affected municipalities.

The departmental governor, Alejandro Unzueta, thanked the national government for its prompt response to the emergency caused by the fires. "Thank you very much for listening to our tremendous needs (…). It is time to leave politics behind, unite and rebuild our department," he said.

Arce also visited the municipality of Urubichá, province of Guarayos, northwest of the department of Santa Cruz, on Saturday. There he coordinated work to combat the fires and delivered humanitarian aid to the population and equipment to volunteer firefighters, military personnel and police who are dealing with the disasters.

According to local media, it rained on Saturday in a large part of the department of Santa Cruz, neighbouring Beni, which was attributed to the bombardment of clouds with silver iodide to provoke rain, an action carried out by the national government last Thursday. Unfortunately, it did not rain in municipalities with active fires such as Urubichá and Puerto Suárez.

This Friday there were 50 active fires in Santa Cruz, according to the Early Warning System for Forest Fires (Satif). On Thursday there were 54. Last Tuesday, the number rose to 74.