I usually call my parents around noon on Sundays. After decades of living in Dallas, our weekly FaceTime is one of the few things I can do to keep connected to family back in Ecuador. But in late October it was a gamble. Will there be a blackout and therefore no internet? Will they even hear the call? While I am calling from the comforts of the U.S., Ecuadorians, 2,500 miles away, are dealing with a new normal as the country is grappling with an unprecedented energy crisis.
A mix of government neglect and drought conditions has left much of the country over-dependent on hydroelectric power. The dams have dwindled so much that huge power plants are shutting down, unable to produce energy.
The length of these blackouts that began in September (there were blackouts in April as well) is only getting worse, with extended hours without electricity. Ecuadorians, like my parents and friends, are in survival mode.
My dad, an architect in his 80s, can hardly find time to work. He is constantly complaining, and I don’t blame him: Every daily task, even taking a shower, has become a challenge. For him, the worst part is when the power returns at midnight, having to wake up to turn off the forgotten lights all over the house, and then trying to go back to sleep again. On that Sunday, he did answer the call, but quickly told me his phone was almost out of battery. I needed to call back at 2 p.m. once the power returned, a window of opportunity that would last only three hours before the next blackout.
Opinion
After years of infrastructure neglect with the added stress of climate change, Ecuador is enduring up to 14 hours a day of blackouts, dealing a blow to economic output and exasperating the moods of Ecuadorians already dealing with high levels of violence, government corruption and unemployment.
The drought has been aggravated by La Niña, a weather pattern that usually leads to warmer and drier conditions, which also explains our drier-than-usual October in Dallas. But in Ecuador, without rain, there is no electric power. Under normal conditions, the country’s hydroelectric plants can produce up to 5,000 megawatts, more than the 4,500 megawatts the country usually needs. Under current drought conditions, hydroelectric plants are producing only about 2,500 megawatts.
To put things into perspective, Texas on a hot August day needs about 80,000 megawatts, a demand that is met with a mix of fossil fuels and renewable energy. Texas planners favor an all-of-the-above approach in energy sources, with an important lesson learned from the 2021 winter storm. Texas produces as much energy as it needs, and planners are constantly forecasting our ever-growing future energy needs.
If only Ecuador had such foresight. Back in the 1980s, Ecuador built the first of several hydroelectric plants in the Paute River, near Cuenca, Ecuador’s third largest city in the south of the country. At the time, it was the largest power infrastructure ever built, so it was worth a visit during a family trip in my childhood.
Before Paute, it was common to have an occasional blackout, usually the perfect excuse for us kids to play hide and seek for a few hours. Hydroelectric power was supposed to put an end to those blackouts. Despite a severe drought in the 1990s that led to energy rationing, Ecuador doubled down on hydroelectric power in the next decades.
In the 2000s with an economic boom, the country built new plants, including the largest one, Coca Codo Sinclair, financed by China. This $3.2 billion plant is plagued with fissures and technical problems and has caused irreparable environmental damage, not to mention corruption. It has also been performing below its 1,500-megawatt goal since its inauguration in 2016. In October, it was producing 740 megawatts.
The weather is a problem, but governmental neglect is even worse. Ecuador relies on a hyper-statist model that discourages private investment. Recent reforms have not completely fixed this problem, since Ecuadorian politicians still see “privatization” as a bad word. Certainly, privatizing power generation would help prevent these crises by investing in other sources like wind and solar.
Ecuador is not alone but, in Latin America, is probably the worst case. Colombia is facing similar drought conditions, and Bogotá, the country’s capital, is cutting water service several hours a day. The rationings are already threatening agriculture and the Bogotanos’ quality of life.
In 2022, the city of Monterrey in Mexico went through a critical period of water shortages, affecting much of the country as well. The drought conditions continue, and Mexico has been unable to fulfill its obligations under a water treaty with the U.S. while 24% of the country does not get water every day. Water rationing is becoming the norm in several Latin American cities, from Mexico City to Montevideo, Uruguay.
Brazil, the world’s second-largest producer of hydroelectric power, had to shut its largest plants in August and had to import electricity from Argentina and Uruguay.
A 2023 United Nations report highlighted the devastating effect climate change has had on Honduras, in Central America, with communities facing prolonged droughts, severe flooding and coastal erosion, forcing people to leave their homes. If these conditions persist in the region, we may see a new migration wave at our southern border soon.
Violence and a lack of economic opportunity are usually the main drivers of migration in Latin America, but climate change is already becoming an indirect cause. According to the World Bank, there are more than 1 billion migrants in the world today, and water deficits are linked to 10% of the rise in global migration.
Some countries are exploring solutions, but they will need larger partnerships.
Colombia and Brazil are leading innovators in environmental policy, offering investment portfolios for a green transition with the funding of financial institutions and developed countries, as discussed in the recent U.N. Biodiversity Summit COP16 held in Cali, Colombia. If other countries in the region follow their lead, these and other policies could prevent more migration and foster development.
The prolonged drought has created ideal conditions for wildfires. In August, the Rainforest Foundation recorded 65,000 fire hotspots in Brazil alone, with tens of thousands of wildfires in Bolivia and Peru.
In September, Quito, Ecuador’s capital, endured its worst wildfires in 30 years with large swaths of the eucalyptus-laden forest surrounding the city burned to the ground. Dozens of households were lost to the fires, including Rolando Moya and Evelia Peralta’s house. The couple are the founders of Ecuador’s most important architectural magazine, Trama.
Through magazines and books, they have recorded and highlighted the history of Quito’s most notable architects, including my dad, Fernando Jaramillo.
The fire destroyed five decades of invaluable archival material.
In Quito, a city of 2.7 million residents surrounded by mountains where pollution is already high, the smoke became omnipresent. One of Quito’s residents is my lifelong friend Francisco Jervis. He usually walks every day several miles with his dog Nino in Parque Metropolitano Guangüiltagua, known for its wooded areas. After the fire, a part of his walking trail is now in ashes.
In Ecuador, as one crisis eases down, another rears its ugly head. A month after the fires Jervis is now dealing with the extended blackouts. Added to the inconvenience of not having electric power, he has a health issue to take care of. He has apnea, a condition that pauses breathing during sleep and can lead to stroke and heart disease, among other ailments.
He uses a CPAP — continuous positive airway pressure — device for sleeping. Without power, he cannot connect his breathing device. Earlier this week, Jervis, 53, told me he was already feeling more tired than usual. Diesel power generators are sold out in Quito and his preferred alternative, a lithium battery, is not easily available and could cost several hundred dollars.
In Quito, those who usually work in homes or offices are now taking their laptops to malls or other places that rely on power generators. Businesses are suffering. Some have reduced schedules, and restaurants have laid off employees.
The drought in Ecuador and other countries in the region reminded me of a nonfiction work by Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, “Caracas sin agua,” or Caracas without water, about a drought in the Venezuelan capital in 1958. A page-turner that will make you terribly thirsty, the article ends with three magical words: “Llovía a chorros.” It was pouring rain.
Jervis sent me a photo on the last day of October of his beloved Parque Metropolitano, covered in hail, after a thunderstorm. In other words, it was pouring rain. That meant fewer hours without power, but for Ecuadorians, there is still an unanswered question: How long will it last?
Part of our series The Unraveling of Latin America. This essay discusses the effects of climate change and an extended drought in Ecuador and other countries in the region.
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Publish date : 2024-11-09 05:00:00
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