Development & Aid, Environment, Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean, Population

GUATEMALA: Hurricane Alerts, Disaster Prevention Plans Made Little Difference

Manuel Bermúdez

SAN JOSÉ, Nov 2 2005 (IPS) - Even though meteorologists had accurately predicted one of the most active hurricane seasons with especially devastating storms this year, it has become clear once again that the political will is lacking in Central America to implement effective disaster preparedness measures, despite the fact that the legal instruments and plans are in place.

Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Belize, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, which have a combined territory of one million square km and a total population of 40 million, are highly vulnerable to natural catastrophes. That includes volcanoes and earthquakes, as well as hurricanes in the Caribbean Sea between the months of June and November, when a dozen tropical storms form on average in the area.

Hurricane Stan’s passage through Central America and southern Mexico in the first week of October left 664 dead and 844 missing in Guatemala alone, with entire villages buried under mudslides. In addition, the storm left over 280,000 people in that country homeless, damaged or destroyed 33,000 homes, and caused enormous economic losses in agriculture and infrastructure.

In the wake of the storm, it was impossible to reach remote disaster areas by land, and from army helicopters, rescue workers only saw a grim landscape of mud, floodwaters and endless rain.

Hundreds died even though there were plenty of warnings. Benedicto Girón, with Guatemala’s National Council for Disaster Reduction (CONRED), told IPS that local governments and communities are responsible for responding to storm alerts, which they failed to do.

“Every year we disseminate information on the preventive measures to be taken. We send reports to all of the country’s mayors with the complete list of disaster prevention measures,” because under Guatemalan legislation, the mayors are responsible for implementing the measures, he explained.

Yuri Melini, director of the non-governmental Centre for Legal, Environment and Social Action (CALAS), commented to IPS that “there is poor risk management, because the governments do not put high priority on the issue.”

“As a result, seven years after Mitch” – a hurricane that devastated Central America in 1998, leaving a death toll of 10,000, including 268 in Guatemala – “we have seen an even worse public calamity,” he said.

“Many of the problems we are facing are the result of negligence by the authorities at all levels,” said the activist.

In Melini’s view, the law on disaster reduction is much more oriented towards responding to emergencies than to carrying out prevention efforts.

Guatemala has some 180 laws and regulations on environmental management which, for example, make environmental impact studies obligatory, said the head of CALAS. But, he pointed out, enforcement falls far short, as does the political will to effectively implement the existing plans, especially at the level of the executive branch.

Guatemala, a country of 12.5 million, has an official poverty rate of 57 percent, although non-governmental organisations put the proportion much higher. An estimated 75,000 children are severely undernourished. The justice system is ineffective and impunity reigns, while there is a huge gap in development levels and living standards between urban and rural areas, and between middle-class neighbourhoods and urban slums.

The country has not yet overcome the effects of the 1960-1996 armed conflict, during which 155,000 people – mainly the inhabitants of Mayan indigenous villages – were killed and 45,000 were forcibly disappeared at the hands of the security forces.

The army is blamed for completely destroying 450 villages and committing more than 600 massacres during the civil war – many of them in the same indigenous communities that bore the brunt of the destruction caused by Hurricane Stan this month.

In addition, the country has suffered major deforestation, which aggravated the mudslides and flooding.

Many of the storm refugees lost their homes, crops and livestock, and even portions of their land were completely swept away. They now have absolutely nothing to eat. Hundreds of them will not be able to return to their villages, and will have to be taken far from their homes to temporary shelters being prepared by CONRED in low-risk areas.

According to CONRED, recovery will take at least six months, during which time relief assistance will be needed to support the storm victims until they get back on their feet.

International aid is essential. The European Union pledged 4.7 million euros (5.6 million dollars) in assistance for Guatemala and El Salvador, while the Spanish government offered 65 million dollars in donations to assist the region in the wake of Stan.

The World Food Programme (WFP) launched a 14.1 million dollar emergency operation to assist 285,000 people in Guatemala.

“Much has been done, but we are still in the emergency phase, because we have more than 2,500 people in shelters,” said Girón.

Meanwhile, the Guatemalan government of Óscar Berger announced in late October that a “framework reconstruction law” was approved, which will require 326 million dollars for recovery through December 2006 – rebuilding the agricultural economy, housing and infrastructure, and providing food assistance.

The destruction of 29 bridges and damages to dozens of roads and highways not only isolated sectors of the population in need of emergency aid, but has also dealt a severe blow to economic activity.

Since Stan hit, inflation has begun to spiral, and it is the prices of staple food products that have risen the most. That has hurt Guatemalans’ buying power, Deputy Nineth Montenegro, with the Encuentro por Guatemala party, told IPS. She also pointed to the damages caused to agriculture, with so many crops destroyed.

The government has expressed concern about the increased flow of Guatemalan migrants to the United States. Around 1.2 million Guatemalans live in that country, sending home 2.55 billion dollars in 2004, making remittances one of the Central American nation’s main sources of foreign exchange earnings.

President Berger has asked the U.S. government to grant Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to undocumented Guatemalan immigrants due to the devastation caused by the storm.

TPS is provided to “aliens in the United States who are temporarily unable to safely return to their home country because of ongoing armed conflict, the temporary effects of an environmental disaster, or other extraordinary and temporary conditions.”

Around 90,000 Hondurans and 60,000 Nicaraguans were granted TPS after Mitch tore through the region in October 1998.