Panama and El Salvador declared themselves in a state of alert on Tuesday August 25 in the face of the El Niño climatic phenomenon, announced as a record and which has already forced a reduction in Panama Canal traffic.
El Niño is a natural phenomenon that returns every two to seven years. Surface waters in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean are warming, leading to a warmer and drier climate in some places, and cooler and wetter ones in others, and causing extreme weather events.
It adds to human-caused global warming and could contribute, according to experts, to making 2027 the hottest year on record.
In this context, Panamanian Interior Minister Dinoska Montalvo announced on Tuesday the establishment of a state of emergency to “be ready to face what could happen.” The measure should in particular make it possible to speed up administrative procedures in the face of the phenomenon.
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Limited traffic in the Panama Canal
Last week, the Panama Canal Authority had already announced that due to the lack of water, the interoceanic route would reduce its traffic from 36 to 34 transits per day from September 3, then to 32 from mid-September. Around 5% of global maritime trade passes through this 80 kilometer long canal.
Further north, El Salvador also declared maximum alert on Tuesday for El Niño, which is causing widespread drought while 14 temperature records were broken in August, according to environmental authorities.
“A red alert is declared due to meteorological and agricultural drought throughout the national territory,” Civil Protection wrote on X.
This measure provides, among other things, for the monitoring of water resources and crops, the identification of localities in emergency situations and the strengthening of epidemiological surveillance, specifies this authority.
Evolution since 1950 of temperature anomalies in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, used to monitor developments in the El Niño phenomenon. © Jonathan Walter, Sabrina Blanchard, Valentina Breschi, AFP
Crop loss
The lack of precipitation in El Salvador has led to a drop in the level of water sources and the loss of crops: according to the Salvadoran Chamber of Small and Medium Agricultural Producers Association, the first harvest of basic grains is expected to experience a total loss of around 20% of production.
Previously, the Ministry of Agriculture had announced food aid for farming households affected by the drought.
El Salvador is partly located in the “dry corridor” of Central America, an arid strip particularly vulnerable to extreme climatic phenomena.
This is also the case for a portion of Honduras, whose south and west have suffered corn and bean harvest losses. The government has placed nearly 80% of the territory on alert.
The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) recently estimated that Central America is “likely to be the most affected region in terms of relative increases in food insecurity” due to El Niño.
From Mexico to northern Brazil, to the shores of the Pacific and the Guiana plateau, around 110 million people experienced the hottest month of July of all available data, according to AFP calculations based on data from the European Copernicus program.
With AFP
