Growing populations in Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador have forced settlements in higher elevations covering more páramo. Recent developments such as construction of aqueducts, drainage systems, and roads, mining, and afforestation have been a huge additional páramo disturbance. Increases in temperature extremes are forcing many fauna and flora species to higher grounds, and eventually they could face extinction. The flora of páramos is adapted to specific conditions and is thus vulnerable to even small climatic change. Climate change in the Andes is causing glaciers in the páramo to disappear and a drop in rainfall, virtually drying up páramo and in turn, drying up the water supply for cities such as Quito, Ecuador and Bogotá, Colombia.