Peruvian Economy and Finance Minister Alex Contreras reported that the current administration has allocated more resources than on previous occasions to adopt the necessary measures and preventive actions against the occurrence of El Niño phenomenon in the country.
"To date, the approved budget alone totaled more than S/7 billion (over US$1.901 billion), while more than S/5 billion (over US$1.357) of the budget has been implemented in preparedness. Peru is more prepared than ever to handle the El Niño phenomenon," the Economy and Finance sector's head said.
Likewise, he reiterated that the Government will not spare resources in preparedness to face an El Niño-related emergency, since historically it is known that this has generated a very significant impact in social terms and on loss of infrastructure.
"Peru is one of the countries that is most exposed to natural disasters and, in this regard, investment has to be in accordance with the risk we are facing," the government official remarked.
"This is El Niño event for which the country will be most prepared, but I take this opportunity to call for unity, because we all must stand together, the different government levels, the public sector, and the private sector, in the face of El Niño," he added.
Furthermore, Contreras pointed out that the Government decided to prepare the country by considering the probability of having a strong magnitude El Niño since the beginning.
"We said it from the beginning: it was prudent to be prepared for the worst scenario, and those have been the Government's lines. We are more prepared than ever, we have warehouses full of food, machinery, the cleaning of rivers is being carried out after four years, riverside defenses are being reinforced, and we will continue to move forward in this regard," he said.
Emergency funds
Moreover, the Cabinet member highlighted that, this year, savings for funds to meet eventual emergencies have doubled compared to 2022.
(END) NDP/RGP/JJN/RMB/MVB
Published: 12/27/2023