NICARAGUA:
Of Forests, Floods,
Fatalities and Famine
By José Adán Silva
MANAGUA, (IPS) -
The forces of nature are
giving Nicaragua no
respite. After the
hurricane that
devastated the country’s
northeastern Caribbean
coast in September,
weeks of torrential
rains have claimed lives
and caused economic
damages, and now the
Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO) is
warning of famine.
Hurricane Felix ploughed
into the country’s
northern Atlantic region
on Sept. 4, leaving a
death toll of 102, with
130 people still
missing, and 220,000
people homeless.
Economic losses were
estimated at 900 million
dollars, and crops in
the area were completely
wiped out, according to
the national system for
disaster prevention and
relief (SINAPRED).
The government was
seeking international
aid when another natural
disaster hit. Heavy
rains fell for 50
consecutive days,
starting before
hurricane Felix, and
flooding large areas on
the Pacific side of the
country in the north and
south. The
administration declared
a state of national
disaster on Oct. 19.
"This is worse than
Mitch," said President
Daniel Ortega, referring
to the damage caused by
the hurricane in October
1998 that killed over
3,000 people, left
700,000 families
homeless and caused
damages to the tune of
between 1.5 billion and
two billion dollars.
SINAPRED estimates that
as a result of the
rains, 216,000 people
have been forced out of
their homes in the
departments (provinces)
of Estelí, Madriz,
Chinandega, León,
Managua, Masaya,
Granada, Rivas, Jinotega
and Matagalpa, in the
north and west of the
country. When the Grande
river flooded the city
of Matagalpa in the
department of the same
name, eight people died
and 10 are still
missing.
Incomplete civil defence
reports mentioned total
or partial destruction
of 22,000 homes, and the
loss of over 3,000
kilometres of roads and
highways, including
eight bridges. Over the
last week, the
Nicaraguan Institute of
Territorial Studies (INETER)
has recorded rainfall of
more than 100
millimetres a day.
Agriculture and Forestry
Minister Ariel Bucardo
said that thousands of
hectares of forests have
been devastated, as well
as 143,274 hectares of
rice, beans and maize,
the staple foods of the
Nicaraguan diet.
Based on these reports,
FAO representative in
Nicaragua Laura de
Clementi warned of the
possibility of famine in
coming months, unless
the government invests
at least three million
dollars in purchasing
seeds for sowing the
next season’s harvest.
"If you don’t sow now,
hunger will be rampant
next year," she said.
In Nicaragua the rainy
season is from May to
October, and the dry
season is from November
to April.
De Clementi said that
production conditions in
the rural areas which
provide 90 percent of
Nicaragua’s food supply
are dire. That is why
she is calling for seeds
to be bought and
distributed to farmers
immediately, "because in
a few months people will
be asking for food."
De Clementi urged the
authorities to buy food
in the short term, and
called on the
international community
to prioritise food aid.
Prior to the alert
sounded by FAO, U.N.
resident representative
Alfredo Missair had
warned that the
vulnerability of people
in the areas hit hardest
by the natural disasters
would increase the
already wide gap between
rich and poor.
The poverty gap has
grown "alarmingly" over
the last five years,
undoing all efforts to
improve living
conditions for the 47
percent of the
population of 5.4
million who live on less
than a dollar a day, he
said.
Even before the advent
of hurricane Felix, the
northern Caribbean
coastal region, home to
more than 300,000
indigenous people, was
already in a state of
poverty, malnutrition
and economic inequality,
he said.
Eighty percent of the
region’s population was
already living in
extreme poverty, and a
further 16 percent were
poor, according to the
2005 census.
In 2005, authorities
declared a state of
famine in the indigenous
communities living along
the Coco river and in
the north of Chinandega,
two of the areas that
have been hit especially
hard now.
According to Vice
President Jaime Morales,
although the
international community
has sent disaster relief
donations to mitigate
the humanitarian crisis,
the rural areas are so
"fragile, vulnerable and
poor" that the aid
cannot make inroads into
chronic malnutrition,
which affects up to 50
percent of the people in
some districts.
Managua Mayor Dionisio
Marenco warned of the
risk of landslides due
to flooding, and of the
possible collapse of the
Augusto César Sandino
international airport
owing to the river
torrents that sweep down
from the hills
surrounding the south of
the capital city.
"This is hardly a
‘natural’ disaster,
because the flooding is
caused by merciless
deforestation in the
mountains," said Marenco,
who promised a municipal
plan to reforest the
southern slopes of
Managua, and to build
embankments to prevent
flooding of the city.
Jaime Incer Barquero, a
biologist and
geographer, said that
unless the government
implements a strategic
plan to curb
environmental damage,
the country could be on
its knees within a few
years because of the
effects of global
warming.
"Nicaragua is not to
blame for the hurricanes
and storms, but it is
responsible for the
destruction of its
forests, which form a
protective barrier. Rain
causes greater damage to
land stripped of its
trees than to forested
areas," the scientist
said.
Before the September and
October rains, the
authorities had launched
a campaign to reforest
60,000 hectares of
woodlands a year.
But now "this project
has been suspended
because of the national
emergency, since the
entire state apparatus
is concentrating its
efforts on overcoming
the crisis caused by the
heavy rainfall," a
government statement
said.
According to the
Environment Ministry, in
1950 there were eight
million hectares of
forest in Nicaragua,
compared to just three
million hectares today.
U.N. agencies like FAO,
the European Union, and
countries such as
Norway, Venezuela, the
United States, El
Salvador, Honduras and
Cuba have sent emergency
aid.
Natural resources
management expert
Guillermo Bendaña said
that the challenge is
not so much that of
obtaining aid for crisis
relief, but "to see
whether it might be
possible to get the
country to stop
destroying its
environment, because the
greater the extent of
deforestation, the worse
will be the soil erosion
effects of the rains,"
he told IPS. ( |
