Communities Ravaged by Climate Change

“It’s like the war,” a young resident of Nueva Esperanza shares. “People will return to their communities with absolutely nothing. They’ll have to start over, just like when they came from Honduras.”In Central American, the October 2011 rains have taken the lives of 123, caused over a million people to evacuate, and destroyed homes, highways and extensive areas of crops and agriculture.

Assessing the Damage, Water Prevents Return Home

As the height of the emergency passes, the reconstruction begins.  The first step is to assess damages to homes, infrastructure, crops and livestock.  After a visit yesterday to the region, President Funes estimated that 70% of crops have been lost in El Salvador.

People will not know the extent of the damage until they are able to return to their communities, visit their fields, and find what livestock survived. As the water levels lowered on Thursday, the first people began to visit their communities to do asses the damage. In San Marcos Lempa, over 30 communities have lost water connection, making the task of removing mud from walls and floors impossible, and a return home still out of the question.

In San Carlos Lempa, the area closest to the coast remains flooded; communities like Rancho Grande, Taura, El Coyol and La Sabana are still under a few feet of water. Esmeralda Villalta, CRIPDES San Vicente Coordinator, reports that homes have been lost to the storm. Most people will have to stay in crowded, under-stocked emergency shelters until the water recedes.

The Mujeres Ganaderas report that in addition to crops and cattle, many of the supplies at their office and store were lost as the waters quickly rose over the weekend of October 15th and 16th.  With many people evacuated and those that remained trying to prepare their homes, Mugan President Santana and others were only able to carry some of their goods up to the second story.   

For the sisters of the Pequeña Comunidad in Nueva Esperanza, the damage in near total. The water levels reached two meters during the worst of the flooding at their convent as well as a the guesthouse they run in the community.  Beds, mattresses, kitchen appliances, supplies; nearly everything they owned was destroyed or washed away.  Despite their own losses, the Sisters can be found on the main road to communities, sweeping away garbage, distributing supplies, or consoling community members. 

Not a Natural Disaster

As communities and organizations respond to the disaster, they also remind us that this is not a natural phenomenon.

The largest rainfall on record in El Salvador was in Hurricane Agatha, June 2010.  The second highest is this year.  In 2009, Hurricane Ida devastated the country, taking hundreds of lives when a rock and mudslide buried the town of Vera Paz.  In 2008, widespread drought caused hunger in poor, rural communities.  These are not normal weather patterns, and predictions for the future do not improve.  The Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, German Rosa Chavez, stated in a Thursday press conference: “This is a huge disaster, and it is not chance.  This is directly related to climate change.”

Climate change is not up for debate in El Salvador – its impact is already too clear, too devastating. Leaders like Mauricio Orellana, of CORDES in Bajo Lempa, argue that without risk prevention and management and climate change adaptation, any effort for reconstruction and rehabilitation will be in vain.

While the rural poor in El Salvador pay the price, they have not contributed in any meaningful sense to climate change. It is their neighbors to the North, the people of the United States, that have made the largest contributions.  

This is an issue of climate justice: assuming responsibility for the impacts of one country’s actions on the rest of the world. To date, the US government is “donating $50,000 to assist the Salvadoran authorities in providing fuel for emergency vehicles, as well as portable kitchen sets and hygiene kits for people staying in government shelters.”  Early estimates put damages well above Ida levels, whose total damage was over $340 million.

In addition to climate change, there is responsibility to go around on the national level.  The dams are responsible for a large amount of the flooding and loss across the nine lower river basins in El Salvador, and people question whether those dams are a necessary part of “development” for El Salvador.  Who is benefiting from increased energy production, the poor or large industry?  While the CEL (Executive Hydroelectric Commission of the Lempa River) profits, communities lose everything.

During the October 20th visit with President Funes, CEL offered the “necessary funds to construct levees and dredge the tributaries, as well as build permanent shelters.”  For community and social movement leaders, this is a familiar, empty promise. As they accompany people home and in the effort to rebuild their lives, they will also have to design advocacy strategies to pressure the CEL to follow through on at least some of this expressed commitment.  

Please support our efforts to help families, communities and regions of El Savlador devastated by this most recent climate disaster rebuild by donating to SHARE today.