Ecuador: One Month After Earthquake, over 70,000 people remain homeless

Earthquake devastated northern Ecuador means of production for hundreds of thousands of people.

elpais.COM reported a month after an earthquake of magnitude 7.8 on the Richter scale shook northern Ecuador , the situation on the ground is still devastating. “Some 33,000 [victims] are in formal shelters or camps and 40,000 are staying with neighbors or friends or living near the homes destroyed, but are outdoors,” says the humanitarian coordinator of the UN in Ecuador, Diego Zorrilla.

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Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, has urged victims to abandon the makeshift shelters that lack the necessary security conditions and where “next adult children” live and can even cause “sexual abuse”……The earthquake last April 16 is the natural phenomenon that has caused the biggest disaster in the region since the Haiti earthquake of 2010. It caused 660 deaths and destroyed 7,000 homes, according to the UN. There are also about 73,000 displaced people, according to the International Organization for Migration. Zorrilla recalled that the affected areas already had problems before the earthquake. Most cantons (municipalities) of Manabi, one of the affected provinces, exceeded time behind the national percentage of unsatisfied basic needs (76.43%). And 30% of the population received before the tragedy water through tankers.

Means of production and infrastructure

The earthquake devastated northern Ecuador means of production of hundreds of thousands of people. The Ministry of Agriculture indicates that destroyed 154 buildings are productive in the affected provinces. Manabi damage in 34 fisheries, 31 poultry farms, 39 pig farms, 22 piladoras rice are recorded; and 10 centers in Esmeraldas cocoa collection were destroyed, among other buildings. In addition, they lost 13,000 hectares devoted to shrimp farming and 7,500 shops.

“For the most vulnerable population, the main sources of income are working in the packing and shrimp processing plants. Most of the pools of crop have been destroyed or affected, “said Maximiliano Verdinelli, emergency team coordinator of the NGO Action Against Hunger.

There are also more than 600 schools impacted have left without access to education for 120,000 children and more than 100 structures damaged health. In the public sector are disabled 92 buildings either total or partial damage or because the staff has not been submitted to work.

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