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.