Ecobreves – ECUADOR: El Niño Returns

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

QUITO, Apr 22 2001 (IPS) - The Ecuadorian government prepares for the return this year of the phenomenon known as El Niño, a warm marine current in the Pacific Ocean that alters the normal patterns of rainfall and winds, causing the extremes of drought or floods. The authorities resolved to ''urgently'' set up a National Committee for the Regional Study of El Niño, linked to the international Permanent Commission for the South Pacific (CPPS).

El Niño, the effects of which seem to be exacerbated by global climate change, caused economic losses totaling more than one billion dollars in 1997, destroying hundreds of kilometers of roads and thousands of hectares of crops along the Ecuadorian coast.