Important aid approved for countries affected by El Niño phenomenon

CAF today approved the Global Program for Disaster Prevention and Emergency Response, which grants funds to member countries affected by the El Niño meteorological phenomenon which could drastically reduce the agricultural and livestock supply, with serious social impact related to food deficits and health problems.

The Program consists of a US$150 million credit facility, non-reimbursable technical cooperation, and increased flexibility of disbursements of existing loans for member countries affected by this natural phenomenon.

CAF President & CEO Enrique García said the regions with greatest impact of El Niño in Latin America were the Pacific coasts of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile where the warming of the water has been most severe, with possibly devastating consequences for agriculture, especially supply of oil seeds, flours and grains, as well as the animal proteins present in fish oil.

The objective of the Program is to reduce the cost of the material and human damage caused by the phenomenon and its direct impact on the economies of the countries affected, he added.

"The idea is to upgrade the level of prevention for future events of this type. To do this, there has to be a prompt response to the emergencies and disasters which occur in each country, preventative actions to reduce the impact of the damage, and long-term planning to upgrade protection during future episodes of the phenomenon which has a variable cycle of appearance of two to seven years," García added.

Finally, the CAF chief said the funds approved would be specifically used for emergencies identified in the productive and social areas as support for the sectors of transport, energy, agriculture, education, health and housing.

The program Application of the program will reduce the rehabilitation costs of the affected areas and infrastructure, and ease domestic budgetary pressures, by avoiding diversion of the funds destined for investment projects into emergency response operations.

The amount assigned to the program totals US$150 million which will be granted in credits – up to 12 years term plus five years of grace – for which the Corporation will apply standards of equity with the objective of guaranteeing a balanced response to member countries.

An additional US$1 million will be assigned from the CAF Technical Assistance Fund (FAT) to grant non-reimbursable technical cooperation funds, supplementary to the loans, for planning and preparation for future episodes of the phenomenon.

In addition, to guarantee a rapid response to emergencies, disbursements for existing credit operations will be made more flexible so that funds can be advanced to finance works associated with the El Niño emergencies.

CAF is an international financial organization with the mission of supporting the sustainable development of its shareholder countries and regional integration. It is formed by 11 nations, whose main members are the five countries of the Andean Community, together with the shareholders Brazil, Chile, Jamaica, Mexico, Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago.

El Niño With a recurrence of between two and seven years, Peruvian fishermen saw the warm water currents reach their coasts close to Christmas, and decided to call the phenomenon El Niño. Today the scientific community calls it the El Niño-South Oscillation after determining that it is a reduction and very often change of direction of the trade winds which normally blow from the east bringing warm surface water to the west coast of South America.

With the appearance of the phenomena, this direction reverses and the warm water returns to the east in a massive slow wave, which reheats large areas of the ocean and affects the climate in various regions of the planet, with an average duration of 12 months according to the latest episodes.

This climate change is associated with disturbances such as declining fish population, particularly on the coasts of Peru and Ecuador; torrential rains and river flooding; higher sea level and coastal flooding; waves of extreme heat during the day on the coasts, and waves of extreme cold and frost at night, particularly in the high mountain areas, and general disturbances of the climate in the central and eastern areas of South America.

This abnormality has negative effects on the economy of the countries affected, such as reduction of fish supplies and exports, higher prices for products prepared with inputs from the sea; destruction of roads, bridges, ports, roads, and residential areas; isolation of production centers and provision of services; interruptions in power supply and telecommunications services; loss of human life in accidents, loss of harvests and animals sensitive to extreme temperatures, along with higher food prices.