Surrounded by built and destroyed homes on a hillside in La Paz (Bolivia), at the end of a collapsed avenue turned into an abyss, lives Cristóbal Quispe, a 74-year-old Aymara small merchant who witnessed the collapse of hundreds of houses, including his own, due to intense rains in 2011.
At least 400 buildings disappeared in the Valle de las Flores, a peri-urban area to the east of the city, according to estimates by the local municipality. But Quispe rebuilt at the foot of the slope, among the ruins. And now, as every year between November and March, during the annual rainy season that becomes unpredictable with climate change, he fears losing everything again.
“From now on (it could happen again). This place is no longer so safe,” he acknowledges. “The municipality has told us that this is a red zone,” he adds. Since November, 16 people have lost their lives due to landslides and river overflows caused by heavy rainfall, according to the Bolivian government.
Fear and constant challenges of living in houses built on hillsides
“We are afraid to live here. When it rains, the mud can slide down from above,” says Quispe. In front of his house, half of a park where children used to play remains. The other half fell into a precipice. The dangers are repeated in the region. In the last ten years (2015-2024), at least 13,878 people have died due to natural disasters in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to data compiled by the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium.
Latin America “is highly vulnerable” to climate change, explains architect Ramiro Rojas, a researcher in urban issues. “We can think that vulnerabilities (…) are amplified by socioeconomic vulnerability: inequalities, high poverty rates, and cities developed without significant planning,” he warns.
Major metropolises have areas very sensitive to climate change, such as the steep favelas in Rio de Janeiro or flood-prone areas in Buenos Aires. Urban planner Fernando Viviescas, a professor at the National University of Colombia, states that “the construction of Latin American cities occurred without ever taking into account” the climate factor.
Homes in high-risk areas
Today, 82.7% of the population of Latin America lives in urban areas, according to data from CEPAL. La Paz, a city at an average altitude of about 3,600 meters, is a large depression nestled among the mountains of the altiplano and crossed by more than 300 rivers and streams that make the soils unstable. 18.4% of the registered properties are in “high” and “very high” risk areas, according to the municipality. Another 44.2% occupy “moderate risk” areas.
“Settlements are increasingly in more vulnerable areas,” such as basins, steep slopes, cliff edges, or natural preservation areas, notes Rojas.
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