Horacio StjewardThe Kabalebo River in Sipaliwini
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 13:25
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Sharyfah Bhageloe
Editor online
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Sharyfah Bhageloe
Editor online
Suriname is experiencing extreme drought. Rivers in the interior have almost dried up. There is a threat of food shortages there. The Surinamese government can start an emergency plan at any time to offer food aid to villages in the interior, but aid is still not forthcoming.
Most inland villages rely on boat transportation. Villages in Sipaliwini, which is the country’s largest district and covers about 80 percent of the country, have been hardest hit by the drought.
The drought of recent months has made inland transport of goods and people by boat difficult. In some places the water is so low that the canoe, a dugout canoe, has to be pushed and the goods have to be lugged out of the boat.
Nina Jurna, Correspondent Zuid-Amerika:
“The persistent drought is causing major problems not only domestically, but also in other parts of Suriname and it also has an impact on the economy and society.
Rice farmers in the west, for example, are concerned about water shortages during the sowing period. The water level in the Brokopondo reservoir, which is essential for Suriname’s energy supply, is also much lower than normal.
The drought also causes several forest and grass fires with a lot of smoke nuisance in various places in the country. The climate problem in Suriname is increasing every year, but this year it is particularly noticeable, partly thanks to El Niño.”
The drought also affects the harvests from agricultural plots failed. These are pieces of land that are used to grow food for personal consumption. This made the population self-sufficient.
On March 5, several ‘granmans‘, authorities of villages in the interior, sounded the alarm to the government to provide their villages with emergency aid. Granman Albert Aboikoni of Asidonhopo village was among the leaders who turned to the government for help.
Asidonhopo depends on rice and cassava and the residents normally grow these themselves. “The crops we grew in December failed,” Aboikoni said. “We can forget about our harvests in April. We need the rain.”
When asked why aid is still not forthcoming, Eduard van Leeuwen, project coordinator of the Surinamese government, answers: “I see it completely differently: aid is imminent.” He supervises the emergency aid and is ready to start.
According to the emergency plan, food will be offered to 17,500 people for the next three months. This mainly concerns emergency aid by plane. In areas where it is still feasible, food is delivered by boat or truck.
“Exclusion of corruption”
“We are trying to solve the problem together, while taking into account the exclusion of corruption or undesirable favoritism,” says the project coordinator.
To prevent “gross self-enrichment”, “additional control mechanisms” have been introduced by the Office of the President and the Minister of Finance. “In these types of situations this is terribly slowing down and undesirable, but understandable given what has happened over the past ten years,” said Van Leeuwen.
Rice and complementary foods
Van Leeuwen expects to fly to the villages of Apetina and Peleloetepu in Sipaliwini on Friday with the first loads of food. The planes are mainly loaded with bags of rice. Additional foodstuffs such as oil, onions and garlic are largely transported by boat.
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Horacio Stjeward
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Horacio Stjeward
Suriname has four seasons: a small and large dry season and a small and large rainy season. The country is currently in the transition from the short dry season to the long rainy season.
The boy
According to Dwight Castel, meteorologist at the meteorological service in Suriname (MDS), the extreme drought has everything to do with El Niño. This is the weather phenomenon that causes the surface temperature of the water in the Pacific Ocean around the equator to be warmer than average. “It was almost dry in December and January, while it was the short rainy season. The precipitation in this period is needed inland, but has not been forthcoming,” says Castel.
The meteorologist does not expect the drought to continue. “El Niño is expected to weaken. As a result, we can expect a normal wet period.”
Although Castel expects a normal rainy season and there have been rain showers in Paramaribo in recent days, the consequences of the drought for the population inland will remain noticeable for the time being.
2024-04-11 11:25:19
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