El Niño Phenomenon

Report of Central American Workshop (Spanish only)

The term "El Niño" ( the 'Christ Child' in Spanish) was originally used by fishermen on the coasts of Peru and Ecuador to refer to an unusually warm ocean current that appears around Christmastime, and prevails for several months. Some years, however, the current becomes unusually warm and suspends the fishing season until May, and sometimes June. Over the years, the term "El Niño" has been used for these exceptionally strong intervals of warm water currents, which not only alter the fishing industry, but also cause heavy rains and prolonged droughts.

In the past forty years, nine El Niño's have affected the earth. During most, temperatures not only rose in the coastal waters, but also on the continent in addition to a band stretching 5,000 miles along the Equatorial Pacific Ocean. During the weakest occurrences, temperatures rose from 1 to 2 degrees Centigrade, only moderately impacting climatic conditions. However, the strong "El Niño" occurrence in 1982/83, and the current 1997/98, left deep marks not only on life itself, but also on climatic conditions throughout the entire world.

Prevention and mitigation activities

Never before has there been such extensive information or early prediction as with the current El Niño phenomenon. The entire world received forecasts of the occurrence and from March and April 1997, several Latin American and Caribbean countries developed prevention and mitigation programs.

All countries established specific contingency plans and prepared mitigation projects in a variety of sectors-especially the health sector-affected by disasters caused by El Niño.

Several projects on improving sanitary conditions and the management and distribution of water were proposed to international and investment organizations. Bolivia received US$4,000,000 for projects, Ecuador US$1,000,000, and Panama US$600,000. In Peru, a budget of US$5,000,000 was established in the health sector to contend with El Niño's devastation in that country.

Response from the countries

Response to the emergencies - mainly floods and landslides differed widely in the affected countries. It ranged from immediate care for the injured to the organization and management of camps or temporary settlements for those who had lost their homes. Additionally, active monitoring was established for diseases that are considered to be high-risk under these circumstances, especially those transmitted by water and food, carriers (malaria and dengue), and acute respiratory infections.

In some countries, such as Peru and Ecuador, it was necessary to respond continually to the needs of the population, and the domestic infrastructure responded promptly. Special offices to respond to the consequences of El Niño were established in the departments of Bolivia.

Countries developed information search systems and communications using the Internet. The major accomplishments obtained are:

Information searches in networks and in world and regional scientific weather organizations.
Exchange of information among countries, especially among those sharing contingency plans and response activities in the health sector, as well as detecting damages and needs.
PAHO, through the Subregional Office of the Disaster Preparedness Program in Quito, and CEPIS, have maintained Web sites that gather the most updated information on El Niño, thanks to the collaboration of several countries.

Regretfully, only a few people in these countries had access to Internet, and especially those who form part of the discussion group, "Internet in Central and South American Disasters. On the other hand, the number of staff members trained on the use of Internet is still very limited.

Manifestations and effects on health

Effects on health have been highly variable in the different countries. In contrast to the 1982/83 El Niño, health and other sectors are currently much better prepared in all the countries; consequently, many problems, which could have been worse, have been avoided. Some of the effects of the 1997/98 El Niño were:

In Bolivia: heavy rains in the mountains causing mudslides on the roads joining La Paz with Cochabamba and Sta. Cruz; freezing weather and hailstorms; a new outbreak of cholera in La Paz, Cochabamba, and Oruro. Consequently, 43 deaths, 400 wounded, and 40 missing were reported.

In Brazil: heavy rains in Rio de Janeiro causing serious flooding; in Roraima, over 200 forest fires destroyed more than 37,000 Km2 affecting some 10,000 persons. No victims were reported.

In Ecuador: heavy rains and flooding on the coast, roads and bridges destroyed; leptospirosis and cholera were detected in the southern region. Statistics reported were 183 dead, 91 wounded, 35 missing, and over 34,000 people adversely affected.

In Paraguay: heavy rains overflowed the Parana and Paraguay rivers, flooding the riverbanks; a tornado devastated the capital city of Asuncion followed by a storm producing floods that damaged houses, schools and hospitals. Forty-nine persons were reported dead.

In Peru: heavy rains in the north, the country's Amazon region, and on the coast; critical flooding, land and mudslides, and substantial damage to roadways; cholera increased significantly in the north, where sanitary conditions are poor at this time. Reportedly, there were 310 deaths, 746 wounded and over 325 persons affected.

Damages in basic sanitation facilities

Drinking water supplies were affected by droughts that dried up the central reservoirs in certain areas. Floods damaged water quality in other areas due to chemicals (basically pesticides, garbage and human waste) drawn in from flooded streams. Water treatment plants, and other water supply sources were damaged by floods, depleting water supplies and increasing the chances of disease due to people resorting to contaminated waters in the absence of sufficient supplies of drinking water.

In terms of disease, the floods created closer contact between humans and water-transmissible diseases, thus increasing the risk of contracting diseases transmitted by rodents and polluted water. The floods and warmer weather also produced favorable environmental conditions for the reproduction of the carriers of malaria, yellow fever and dengue, thus risking the increase of these diseases.

Damages to health service facilities

Health service facilities were severely damaged by El Niño flooding, which damaged equipment and furniture, roofs, walls, windows, and supplies. It created problems with sewer systems, drinking water supply and storage, electricity, gas and fuel.

For example, in Peru it was reported that 99.5% (437/4,576) of the health facilities had been damaged, of which 2% (9/443) were hospitals, and 10.3% (428/4,133) were other health centers. Approximately US$1,500,000 was designated to guarantee the operation of these facilities through waterproofing ceilings, installing drains, building water drainage systems, protecting equipment, installing generators and providing alternative water supply systems.

In Ecuador, 2.3% (7/2909) of the hospitals suffered damages mainly from flooding, mud, defective sewage systems and problems in the drinking water supply. To date, there is no information on the status of smaller facilities.

The majority of the problems caused by El Niño in the physical infrastructure of health facilities were perfectly predictable, except that, in this case, more emphasis has been given on problems arising at this time of the year in the countries. For the most part, these problems are due to deficiencies and errors made in the planning, design and building process of these facilities, as well as the absence of mitigation programs on the consequences of disasters. The topographical characteristics of the location also contribute to the damages incurred, such as site location, geographical and climatic conditions, construction materials and methods, water and electricity supply services, and accessibility to the location. Emphasis must be placed on the fact that, whenever a natural disaster strikes, health service facilities will be affected either to a greater or lesser degree in accordance with the development of mitigation and preparedness programs.

Conclusions

A meteorological phenomenon such as the 1997-98 El Niño which caused extreme precipitation and drought, shows us the importance of including weather studies and forecasts into the disaster mitigation and preparedness programs, since they are increasingly more precise and rapidly accessible worldwide.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, El Niño forecasts were taken very seriously and these countries in the Region as well as international organizations, invested resources and personnel in mitigation and preparedness programs well in advance of the extreme consequences.
Currently, the effects of El Niño continue to be drastic and other countries such as Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay are beginning to experience perilous flooding, while prolonged periods of drought continue in Central America.
Once the El Niño is over, it will be necessary to perform in-depth studies of the lessons learned and use them in the daily duties of emergency organizations in all of the countries.
The magnitude of events created by El Niño, prove that the countries need to include disaster prevention, mitigation and preparedness in their social and economic development agendas.

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