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INTRODUCTION
This publication represents a collaborative endeavour between the World Food Programme (WFP) and Action Against Hunger. We aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of the humanitarian impacts of El Niño experienced in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region, shedding light on the phenomenon’s impacts in 2023 and 2024 and the urgent needs demanding international attention.
El Niño is a meteorological phenomenon characterised by periodic warming of sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. El Niño represents the warm phase of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), contrasted by the cold phase known as La Niña. During an El Niño episode, conventional atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns in the Pacific Ocean are disrupted, resulting in widespread alterations to precipitation patterns, cyclonic activity, and global temperature averages. El Niño usually occurs every two to seven years, and can affect the LAC region, increasing vulnerability to droughts, floods, hurricanes, storms, and wildfires. Furthermore, it can have significant impacts on global, regional, and local food production, as well as economic growth, leading to escalations in food prices, agricultural inputs, and energy costs.
The 2015-2016 El Niño episode left a profound humanitarian mark on over 60 million individuals worldwide, impacting agricultural production, food security, livelihoods, health, water, sanitation, and education.
El Niño can affect the Latin American and Caribbean region in the following ways:
The Central American Dry Corridor spanning parts of Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, as well as northern South America, experience drier-than- usual conditions. Historically, the El Niño phenomenon has been associated with drier and warmer weather from June to October, followed by above-average rainfall from September to May, especially along coastal regions.
Typically, El Niño conditions suppress hurricane activity in the Atlantic basin and the Caribbean Sea.
Warmer waters in the Pacific basin can increase the frequency and intensity of storms, heavy rains, and flooding along the western coasts of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) officially declared the start of the El Niño season in early July 2023. El Niño is expected to weaken by April 2024, with neutral ENSO conditions likely to prevail thereafter. La Niña conditions are anticipated to return between July and September 2024.
In 2023, El Niño conditions led to prolonged droughts and water shortages in the Central American Dry Corridor, Bolivia, and Colombia, alongside intense rainfall and flooding along the coasts of Ecuador, Peru, and inland Bolivia. These climatic variations led to agricultural impacts, with crops at risk of being lost due to droughts or destroyed by floods. Agricultural losses exacerbated food insecurity, created economic hardships, and heightened the vulnerability of communities reliant on agriculture for their livelihoods.
Source link : https://reliefweb.int/report/colombia/el-nino-latin-america-and-caribbean-2023-2024
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Publish date : 2024-03-27 03:00:00
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