In its assessment, the CRGR invited authorities to develop an early warning system to mitigate the impacts that natural phenomena may generate.

The situation was addressed by the Permanent Roundtable for Risk Management in El Salvador (MPGR), which assessed that the country “is not prepared to address comprehensive risks because it is not implementing a risk management policy and is not providing community-level care.”

According to Magdalena Cortez, a representative of the Ministry of Public Health (MPGR), 90 percent of the population lives in 80 percent of the most vulnerable areas, but authorities do not use the National Policy for Natural Disaster Risk Management, approved in 2017. “It is a very well-crafted policy, a policy that included the participation of civil society, but it is a policy that is shelved, and if it is shelved, it is useless,” she revealed to the press.

She also stated that a community monitoring network existed, but it no longer in place, and without it, communities lack timely information and are uncertain about what is happening.

Given these shortcomings, the organization recommended that authorities must implement preparations in advance of the cyclone season and develop an early warning system to mitigate the impacts that natural phenomena can generate.

José Ramón Ávila, of the CRGR, said that “we will have droughts, hurricanes, cyclones, and landslides, and governments must prepare. They must have planned actions for the risks they frequently face in the region, and they must prepare and activate their response mechanisms.”

jrr/llp/npg/lb