Emergency Project Will Provide Food,
Medicine and Clean Water
February 13, 1998 - CARE today
announced an emergency project to help counteract the devastating effects
of El Niño on certain coastal and highland communities in Ecuador.
El Niño-related flooding along the coast of Ecuador has left many victims homeless and without access to food, medicine or drinking water. According to local sources nineteen bridges and 3,500 kilometers of roadway, which are necessary for transportation of important materials and supplies between provinces, have been affected by El Niño, paralyzing production in many areas.
The government of Ecuador has declared a state of emergency in the wake of El Niño, in several regions of the country.
The emergency project implemented by CARE will distribute food and medicine in several communities of Canton Santa Elena. At the same time, CARE will install water bladders donated by CARE Canada to provide safe drinking water in communities where there is none available in the provinces of Esmeraldas, Manabí, Guayas, El Oro and Loja.
"A lack of drinking water in an emergency situation can create a breeding ground for other diseases including cholera," explains Director Leo MacGillivray of CARE Ecuador. "In this first stage, CARE is trying to respond to the immediate needs of the people. Later we'll move to help rebuild the communities that have been affected."
El Niño is a vast warm water current - roughly the size of Europe - that forms in the Pacific Ocean near the Equator, every three to seven years and has a disruptive effect on weather around the world. The 1992 El Niño was blamed for some 2,000 deaths and estimated economic losses totaling about $13 billion. The current El Niño - predicted to be the worst in recent history - has led to drought in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia and heavy rains in Chile, Peru, Ecuador and parts of Bolivia.
CARE's emergency El Niño project in Ecuador is being funded from a half-million dollar El Niño Response Fund established by CARE in November.
CARE has worked in Ecuador since 1962. Today, CARE supports programs in health care, water and sanitation, agriculture and small business development in that country to the tune of $8 million each year.