Our Deal: Graduates Ready to Stimulate

Laura Houghton

St. Louis Park, MN

BS Housing Studies, Spring 2009

Household & Community Response to Annual Flooding in Rural Bolivia

The rainy season in South America results in flooding that devastates communities by destroying homes and spreading illness and disease. The small, rural village of Villa Alba-El Beni, Bolivia experiences annual flooding but has little way of preparing for damage. After two subsequent years of record-breaking floods, I travelled to Villa Alba during the summer of 2008 to interview ten households about the flood’s effects on housing and health. The parallels between conversations with residents of the village and information found in literature review suggest that a household and community response to the flooding would dramatically decrease the negative effects on both housing and health.

Click here for a pdf of Household & Community Response to Annual Flooding in Rural Bolivia.