Venezuela Faces Worst Drought In Decades

A woman carries an empty barrel to collect fresh water in Filas de Mariches neighborhood in Caracas.
A woman carries an empty barrel to collect fresh water in Filas de Mariches neighborhood in Caracas. Ariana Cubillos / AP Photo
A woman carries an empty barrel to collect fresh water in Filas de Mariches neighborhood in Caracas.
A woman carries an empty barrel to collect fresh water in Filas de Mariches neighborhood in Caracas. Ariana Cubillos / AP Photo

Venezuela Faces Worst Drought In Decades

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Venezuela is going through one of its worst droughts in the last 30 years. 

Electricity has been increasingly unreliable as the water levels at the Guri Dam, which provides 40 percent of the nation’s power, fell to a record low on Monday.

President Nicolas Maduro announced a plan to make Fridays non-working holidays through April and May as a way to conserve energy. 

David Smilde is a senior fellow at the Washington Office in Latin America and joins us from Caracas to talk about how Venezuela is managing their environmental crisis.