The Government will request support from multilateral organizations to finance their preparation with a view to facing the coming El Niño phenomenon.
Remains of the objects and belongings of the inhabitants of Esmeraldas, after the heavy floods, on June 7, 2023.
In a meeting with representatives of the media, President Guillermo Lasso indicated that he will ask the multilaterals for the possibility of granting new credits and reorienting those that have already been granted, to face the El Niño phenomenon.
Lasso referred to a loan from the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) for road maintenance that had been signed before the threat of El Niño and that now comes as “a glove.”
The national plan includes a first phase of preparation with mitigation, adaptation and prevention works focused especially on the coastal areas, which concentrate the greatest damage from El Niño, when they suffer flooding due to torrential rains caused by an unusual warming of the sea.
An initial item of USD 266 million has been earmarked for this first stage, a large part of which has been financed through bonds subscribed by Ecuadorian private banks.
The estimate of the Ecuadorian Executive is that the coming El Niño could cause losses worth USD 4,000 million, with around 35,000 victims.
Lasso explained that the objective is to be ready enough so that the economic damage does not reach 10 points of the gross domestic product (GDP), as happened with the El Niño episode of 1997-1998.
According to the current measurements managed by the Navy, Ecuador has more than an 80% chance of experiencing a moderate or low El Niño event and a 56% chance of it being moderate to high.
