Andean region bracing for return of El Niño

Andean countries Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, which are still recovering from devastation caused by climate change in recent years, are preparing to withstand another onslaught from the El Niño phenomenon.

Ecuador's national risk and emergency service (SNGRE), which recently issued an El Niño alert for five coastal provinces, declared a state of emergency in Esmeraldas province and implemented contingency measures after flooding caused by torrential rains claimed 12 lives and left 156 homeless.

The agency said it has preparing temporary shelter for 275,000 people, in addition to 20,832 survival kits including food, personal hygiene items, buckets, water purification tablets and mosquito nets. International weather agencies believe there is a 90% probability of a moderate El Niño this year, the agency said in a statement.

The agency has also sent earth moving equipment to Los Ríos province to clear areas that have been affected by flooding, in addition to providing training for volunteers. Ecuador has recorded 136 landslides, 50 cases of flooding and eight cave-ins due to rains since October, the agency said.

In Manabí province, the local government is working to reinforce dikes and clear riverbeds and irrigation canals after a landslide blocked roads, Guayaquil-based newspaper El Telégrafo reported. Rivers have also overflowed their banks in Guayas province, it said.

Over the past two years the Andean region suffered the effects of both global warming and El Niño, where warmer ocean temperatures cause torrential rains, leading to flooding and landslides.

Flooding and landslides left 27 dead, damaged 30,000 homes and wiped out thousands of hectares of farmlands in Ecuador in 2017.

REGION

In Bolivia, flooding has left 975 homeless families in four municipalities in Potosí and Santa Cruz departments, deputy civil defense minister Carlos Bru said.

National weather service Senamhi declared a flooding red alert in Santa Cruz after the Yapacaní, Surutu, Cuevo and Parapetí rivers overflowed. The situation may worsen due to deforestation in the areas and the fact that communities have built homes near the rivers, Bru warned.

"The El Niño phenomenon is already here." Bru told reporters. "We just lack the formal declaration by regional experts scheduled for January 15."

Peru, which was the hardest hit in the region by flooding in 2017, reported widespread flooding in Tumbes and Piura regions on the north coast due to torrential rains. Local municipalities began clearing irrigation canals, while landslides blocked roads and damaged 65 homes in Piura, according to civil defense authorities.

Peru is accelerating work on an US$8bn reconstruction program after record flooding and landslides devastated much of the north coast in early 2017. El Niño left at least 163 dead and 291,000 homeless and caused billions in damage to infrastructure last year, according to the central bank.

Colombia, meanwhile, was forced to suspend potable water services in the port city of Buenaventura after the rain-swollen Escalerete river had excessive turbidity and the San Cipriano River overflowed its banks, flooding nearby San Cipriano municipality, water utility Hidropacífico said in a statement.

Colombia was hit by several landslides in 2017, the deadliest of which left 254 dead and more than 200 injured in the town of Mocoa in Putumayo department .