Quito, June 25 (Prensa Latina) The prefecture of the province of Guayas in Ecuador today announced the start of dredging work on the Guayas river to prevent the effects of the El Niño phenomenon.
Several experts have warned that one of the causes of the repeated flooding in the city of Guayaquil in this coastal Ecuadorian area is due to the inefficient dredging system, a technique that cleans the river and removes stones and mud to restore it to its level. and natural canal.
According to the city’s authorities, the excavator will have to extract 6.28 million cubic meters of sediment that will be deposited on the city of Durán’s land to be used as backfill material.
With a stretch of 60 kilometers and a basin of 34,500 square kilometers, the Guayas River is one of the main rivers in Ecuador and is considered to be the largest hydrographic basin on the Pacific coast of South America.
The coastal province of Guayas will be one of the provinces most affected by El Niño, which will favor the occurrence of floods and landslides.
The Risk Management Secretariat estimates that 2.3 million people will be affected by this climate event, mostly in El Oro, Los Ríos, Manabí and Esmeraldas.
Specialists from the Polytechnic School of the Coast (Espol) confirmed this week that the El Niño phenomenon would occur in Ecuador between November and December.
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.
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