Hurricanes Eta and Iota: Effects of Climate Change and Social Protection Strategies

In my previous post, I highlighted the importance of social protection to address the effects of climate change. This new post will begin by briefly explaining how climate change can increase the intensity of hurricanes and how this can harm people and the planet. It will then go on to explore the particular effects of Hurricanes Eta and Iota on people in Central America. Finally, it will explore social protection approaches that were adopted to assist people in Guatemala (one of the countries seriously affected by Hurricanes Eta and Iota). 

It is believed that the intensity of the hurricanes increased due to climate change as climate change impacts sea levels (rising levels) and the ocean temperatures (getting warmer). Also, due to powerful hurricanes, strong winds are brought, which causes drought in so many regions while affecting the ecological balance. Droughts that become consistent and severe have an impact on to what extent the rainfalls can be infiltrated into the soil, and the rainfalls often run off along the surface, causing floods. This harms our planet as well as people in the regions affected by extreme weather conditions, especially those living in coastal shoreline countries.

 

For example, in 2020 Hurricanes Eta and Iota hit parts of Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Belize, and affected over 9 million people in the region (UNICEF Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Office, 2022). The hurricanes, unfortunately, had an impact on over 5.3 million people and their prosperity and peace and left them in need of assistance. Towns were submerged in floodwaters. Most of the people affected by these hurricanes had nowhere to go. The region was already affected by the Covid 19 pandemic and with the severe hurricanes,  more and more people became unemployed. Also, the economic fallout due to the pandemic and the hurricanes contributed to food insecurity in the region. Thus, the Hurricanes Eta and Iota quickly turned into a humanitarian crisis. 

Several assistance programmes were established with an aim of providing emergency relief for people living in affected areas in Central America. Regarding the USAID’s (2021) report, the total funding in Guatemala was over 70 million US dollars. Many emergency aid programmes were established, such as food assistance, protection from violence, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) support, and cash transfers. One of the cash transfer programmes, for instance, was established by UNICEF in support of Guatemala’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food (MAGA). According to UNICEF’s (2022) report on the response to Hurricanes Eta and Iota, for the cash transfer programme they “developed an application for mobile phones that allowed the collection of information from 800 agricultural workers in affected municipalities […] The workers benefitted from a monetary transfer of GTQ 1000 (approximately USD 130).” The cash transfer programme provided emergency relief for agricultural workers in affected areas. Also, having their information on the application, the officers from MAGA could provide the beneficiaries with the necessary support in the process of recovery. 

 

Although emergency aid is important for people hit by a crisis, it is also important to assist them to become resilient to crises. People living in areas that are most vulnerable to climate change need to develop adaptive capacity and find ways to respond to the effects of climate change. To assist people in developing adaptive capacities, there are Adaptive Social Protection (ASP) approaches. Please do not worry if you do not know about ASP because I am planning on writing about ASP next! 

Hope you enjoyed reading my post. Thank you for having the time to read it!

References

UNICEF Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Office. (2022). Response to Hurricanes Eta and Iota Consolidated Emergency Report 2021.

       USAID. (2021). El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras – Regional Response.