Millions of children in Latin America at risk from El Nino, says Unicef

Millions of children in Latin America are at risk from severe droughts and flooding unleashed by an historic episode of the El Nino ocean-warming pattern, the UN’s children’s agency said Wednesday.

El Nino is a naturally occurring climate variation that warms surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, causing worldwide changes to wind and rain patterns.

This year’s El Nino is projected to be the strongest on record.

Unicef warned that 25.8 million Latin American children, or one in seven, “face growing risks” from droughts and flooding already causing havoc across South and Central America.

The effects “threaten to push even more children into deeper vulnerability and increase existing inequalities,” said Roberto Benes, Unicef’s Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, said in a statement.

The impact varies across the region.

In the Central American nations of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, the drought affects harvests, increasing the risk of malnutrition for children, who already face difficulties accessing food and safe water, Unicef said.

Parts of Bolivia, Colombia, Chile and Venezuela face elevated risk of wildfires, while in the Amazon basin, riverside communities may become cut off due to dwindling river levels.

Further south, on the Pacific coast of Mexico and South America, increased rainfall will lead to a greater risk of flooding and damage to schools and health infrastructure, according to Unicef.

The agency also warned of even more misery for Cuba and Haiti.

The effects of El Nino are also in evidence in this year’s unusually intense Pacific hurricane season.

A single “major storm can cause widespread destruction” and “disrupt the lives” of hundreds of thousands of children, Benes stressed.

Unicef said that it had requested $53.8 million to respond to El Nino emergencies in Latin America, but as of June 30 had only raised half that amount.

Unicef, like other UN agencies, has suffered major funding cuts since US President Donald Trump returned to power last year.

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