Droughts force Ecuadorians to migrate internally and internationally. Loja, Manabí, Guayas and Santa Elena are historically the most affected.
Óscar Rojas’s parents had to carry buckets of water from the central square of the Celica canton, in Loja, to their home. The containers were filled in the only outlet arranged to supply the population with the vital liquid. That is the memory of the brutal drought that hit the province in 1968 and that lasted until the early 1970s.
This natural phenomenon also affected the provinces of El Oro and Manabí and was considered one of the most devastating of the century. Óscar’s father grew potatoes and had head of cattle. Due to the lack of liquid, he was forced to migrate with his family to Ambato, Tungurahua.
The drought in Loja caused a migratory movement towards the rest of the country. “ANDThat’s why in the northern Amazon there are a large number of Lojans. Another group of people migrated to Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, to Pichincha. In the group of those who migrated to the center of the country are my parents”, dice.
The 1990 census indicates a population reduction of 43% in this province. In addition, total losses corresponded to 68% of agricultural production and 32% with respect to livestock. In El Oro there were between 15,000 and 20,000 people affected by the phenomenon and losses between 50 and 60% of the crops. In Manabí, meanwhile, there were losses in large areas of short-cycle crops and in the livestock sector.
Loja was again affected by a great drought between 1996 and 2001. Local and international migration also took place here. “All these people are climatic migrants who are looking for water to satisfy their needs and in this search we can generate social conflicts when reaching cities that are not the ones of origin“Says Rojas, who, in addition, is the current Vice Minister of Water and from his position, he says, seeks to mitigate the problem, since he has experienced it” closely “.
According to data from the National Historical Inventory of disasters produced in Ecuador, 101 drought events were registered during the period 1970 and 2007. This natural phenomenon, which worsens with climate change, was strongly evidenced last year and in 2018 in Manabí . Before, in 2011, the Central Government declared six provinces in emergency due to the lack of rain.
To face this problem, the ministries of the Environment, Agriculture, the National Risk Service, the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (Inamhi) and local governments structured the National Drought Plan (PNS) 2021-2025. This document makes a historical analysis of the lack of rain in Ecuador.
“18% of the national territory has a medium and high susceptibility to drought, especially the provinces of Loja, Manabí, Guayas and Santa Elena. Sucumbíos was born from the migration of people from Loja due to the drought”, Says Karina Barrera, Undersecretary of Climate Change.
According to the official, the PNS seeks to establish guidelines that serve as guidance to public and private actors of the Decentralized National Risk Management System to comprehensively combat the causes and impacts of drought.
“The plan consists of the theme of prevention, the increase in adaptive capacity and the incorporation of the phenomenon into the territorial planning. It is also indicated that the predictive capacity must be increased by implementing a drought monitor that allows us to identify when it will happen and then establish an action protocol. The drought is one more event that must be managed ”, he points out.
The National Drought Monitor will have a decision-making body based on hydrological thresholds that warn of the presence of a potential drought: “This requires strengthening the administrative, physical and technological structure of the Inamhi”, Says Barrera. The investment for the articulation of the plan and the technology for the monitor would amount to seven million dollars.
It also seeks that subnational governments adapt to droughts and begin to establish water storage systems. In addition to rethinking, if necessary, their forms of agricultural production. In other words, provinces like Manabí must rethink the livestock model due to the lack of rain..
Another important point to fight against water scarcity in Ecuador is the conservation of water sources, adds Rojas. There are currently 60,000 water protection areas and the Government aims to reach 284,000 by 2025. (I)
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