Finally, some food.

 

Some 40,000 families in the Amazonian eastern provinces of Bolivia were completely stranded by recent floods. 

 

Now the country's military is delivering rice, vegetables, cooking oil and other supplies to these residents, many of them members of indigenous tribes, who live along the Mamore River.

 

Celso Rocha and his wife decided not to leave their flooded village. But they are desperate for aid.

 

[Celso Rocha, Local]:

"We've lost all our crops. The rice, the corn, the yuca. There was little rice to begin with."

 

The military's 15-day operation is the first relief many communities here have received.  

 

Some areas have gone three months without any assistance. 

 

The World Food Program has donated much of the food being delivered. 

 

This local man says he hopes the aid keeps coming. 

 

[Cornelio Molla Yibanure, Indigenous Local]:

"I hope they keep bringing help. Because the communities here have no money to pay for the transport of donations, or to buy the things we need."

 

The rainy season has been particularly intense and resulted in flooding in this area of Bolivia almost every year since 2005.  Many environmentalists blame deforestation for the devastation.