In testimony to digital portal Primicias, oceanographer Franklin Ormaza added that the highest peaks of precipitation would occur between February and March 2024.
The researcher recalled that the Andean country experienced a devastating El Niño in 1982 and 1997. In the 1980s, it caused $650 million in damage to the productive sector, he explained.
Likewise, he said, at the time, only in the city of Guayaquil in Guayas province did the Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology estimate that accumulated rainfall exceeded 4,000 cubic millimeters of water.
This week it became known that Ecuador does not have a strategic reserve of rice, corn and soybeans to face the consequences of this climatic event that will mainly affect the coastal zone.
For its part, the Risk Management Secretariat estimates that 2.3 million people from 17 provinces will be affected by the meteorological phenomenon, mainly due to flooding or landslides in El Oro, Guayas, Los Ríos, Manabí and Esmeraldas.
Meanwhile, President Guillermo Lasso plans to submit three legislative decrees to the Constitutional Court, the most urgent of which aim to implement economic reforms to counteract the effects of El Niño, Government Minister Henry Cucalón reported.
lam/nta