Tuesday. December 22nd, 2015. Approximately seven locations in Paraguay, among them the capital city of Asuncion; have been declared in a state of emergency due to flooding of the Paraguay River, and the heavy rains that have occurred in recent weeks. This River has exceeded 7.2 meters high, leaving more than 13.0000 displaced families, for a total of 65,000 victims.
The heavy rains that have hit this nation since the end of last November; have collapsed several creek crossings, raising the water level of the River Paraguay, which are a meter and a half to reach an historic and catastrophic record.
According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the rains are expected to continue until the end of the current week in the capital of Asuncion, but with less intensity; but equally worrying for the havoc already evident in the affected areas, and to continue to plague the country at least until February or March 2016.
The National Emergency Secretariat (SEN), has provided nearly 100 shelters to give host evacuees; some of which are camps and temporary housing built by this organization.
However, due to the large number of victims; these centers cannot keep up, so a large number of citizens have been forced to stay in public places such as sidewalks, plazas, promenades and gardens plants; generating concern among residents of the highlands of the capital.
In the following YouTube video of EFE Agency, you can verify these claims:
Congress approved this emergency condition for the following 90 days, while President Horacio Carter, issued a decree allocating one of the clauses, 3.39 million to provide humanitarian aid to those affected.
However, the newly elected mayor of the municipality of Asuncion, Mario Ferreiro; does not rule out the possibility of getting support from the international community, if the resources are not sufficient to meet all the needs of the population disturbed.
He said this was no shame, especially in these times when the overflow of water in Asuncion is so serious that exceeds municipal capacity in terms of resources to deal with the situation of the displaced. In fact, Ferreiro announced that he was already talking to organizations like the United Nations, the European Union and the Inter-American Development Bank for possible negotiations; but he explained that the official request of the Paraguayan president was necessary for this.
This is the third flood of the Paraguay River this year, being alarming the damages; because the puddles and mud, have reached the temporary shelter, where children play in the waters, potentially leading to the spread of disease due to unsanitary conditions.
ALFA