CRIPDES

Update # 6

Thursday, February 1, 2001

Two and a half weeks following the earthquake that struck El Salvador January 13, the nation is beginning to realize just how short the international aid received to date will fall in terms of covering the basic needs of the quake’s victims. Of the millions promised by the world’s nations in the hours and days following the disaster, President Flores reported Sunday just $800,000 had actually been deposited in the government’s disaster relief account. Of course that figure doesn’t include the 1,688 tons of material aid received, but those shipments as well have dropped from 100 tons daily immediately following the quake to 20 tons daily. The president of the much criticized National Solidarity Commission announced that what is currently in the warehouses at Comalapa airport will last only through the next four days.

The picture doesn’t promise to get any brighter given that the world’s attention will, out of necessity, shift to northwest India where Friday’s earthquake may have left as many as 100,000 dead.

Prior to the earthquake 25% of Salvadorans lived in poverty. The earthquake directly affected 15% of the population and 30% of the national territory. The United Nations Development Program estimates that the disaster increased the number of Salvadorans living in poverty by 10%. According to conventional wisdom, to reduce the poverty rate by 10 percentage points takes at least ten years and then only if a nation’s GNP grows by at least 3 % per year. By these calculations, a third of the Salvadoran population will have to wait until the year 2011 to recuperate even to the levels of misery or near misery conditions they lived in prior to January 13.

El Salvador is drastically in need of a reconstruction plan that will help the country beat these statistics.

Any plan to rebuild the country needs to incorporate the ideas, energy and efforts of Salvadorans of all political persuasions and include systems of verification and control that will satisfy all Salvadorans.

The Civil Society Forum for the reconstruction and Development of El Salvador (of which CRIPDES is a key member) has created a citizen Commission for Reconstruction and Transparency composed of 6 individuals: the Lutheran Bishop, the President of the Salvadoran Medical College, the President of the Salvadoran Ecological Unit, the President of the Women’s Judicial Association, the director of the Co Latino newspaper and the president of the Corporation of Salvadoran Municipalities (who is also mayor of Santa Tecla).

For a country still categorized by extreme levels of political polarization stemming from the post-war context, this model of independent systems of verification, while appearing inefficient due to the duplication of efforts, is the only sure way to guarantee to the population that aid is in fact being delivered where it is needed.

The danger of following the more traditional model of a bipartisan commission as was established in Nicaragua following Hurricane Mitch is that it will be manipulated (as it was there) by the government who invited in the opposition and then proceeded to exclude them.

In addition to the establishment of the Citizen Commission, the Forum is calling for the approval of the Law for the Prevention and Mitigation of Disasters and for Civil Protection. This proposed legislation was initially submitted last year but has languished there ever since. Last Thursday the Forum presented the legislation again.

The Forum is calling upon international solidarity to give their support (through letters and phone calls to elected officials both up there and here) behind both the Citizen Commission and the Mitigation of Disasters legislation. As well, of course, as continuing the incredibly important efforts of fundraising and other forms of solidarity that you have all undertaken following the earthquake.

Seguimos Adelante!

Cristina Damon and Erlinda Conrad

U.S.-El Salvador Sister Cities