PORTAL RASMI
JABATAN PERDANA MENTERI
AGENSI PENGURUSAN BENCANA NEGARA
JABATAN PERDANA MENTERI
AGENSI PENGURUSAN BENCANA NEGARA
‘If there is no rain, we will die’: Fears of hunger overwhelm Guatemalan village as El Nino approaches
- Admin UKK
- Berita
CUNEN, June 2 — While drought expands through Cunen as the specter of El Nino climate instability approaches, one fear has seized this indigenous Guatemalan village: death by hunger.
The rains still haven’t come here, where local farmers fear the lack of water could ruin the subsistence crops they need to survive.
“If there isn’t rain, (the crops) won’t come...If there isn’t anything we’re going to die of hunger,” Cecilia Pasa Sarat, a 38-year-old woman who has planted a small amount of corn, told AFP in Xetzac, a village in Cunen.
Cunen is a hard-to-reach mountainous region where the majority of the approximately 47,000 residents are poor, and rely on water from wells that are now going dry.
This village in the Indigenous Maya department of Quiche lays in the heart of the Dry Corridor, an arid mountainous stretch running through Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua that’s become vulnerable to extreme climatic events.
Quiche was one of Guatemala’s most hard-hit regions during the El Nino related food crisis in 2023. Some worry the crisis could return due to a lack of government support.
The phenomenon now fueling local residents’ hunger fears occurs every two to six years as part of a natural climatic cycle that affects the surface temperatures on the Pacific Ocean.
It’s expected to start between June and August, creating monthslong planetary ripple effects.
‘Prolonged damage’
Weeks of drought have dessicated the dusty streets of Xetzac, where the creeks that usually irrigate the town’s patchwork of corn, potato, broccoli and bean fields are evaporating under the brutal sun.
Taking refuge in the tree shade where the resin-scent of pines drifts down the hillside, Elvira Pasa says the eventual loss of the village harvests will only end in “hunger.”
“We farm, we don’t sell it, we just eat it,” the 27-year-old community leader and mother of a two and seven-year-old son told AFP.
“Whatever we plant is what we eat. What will happen if it doesn’t rain?” 43-year-old Lucia Rojop asks herself.
Her fears are well-founded: around 2.5 million Guatemalans face potential food insecurity due to the drought and the high probability of a powerful El Nino weather cycle.
The Guatemalan government says it has 1.1 million rations ready to distribute in the face of an emergency.
According to experts, the chance that El Nino could spiral into a more dangerous event depends on numerous atmospheric factors.
Governments across the dry countries of Central America raised alert levels over the El Niño phenomenon. But El Nino isn’t the only reason the situation is worsening.
Just in Guatemala, the “dry corridor” expanded from 40 to 160 municipalities since 2004, meaning almost half of the country has been subjected to climate change-fueled drought, according to the government.
El Nino has reduced by half, according to Alex Guerra, the director of the Private Institute for Investigation on Climate Change (ICC).
Cecilia Pasa walks through a puny corn farm, a clear testimony of the drought. “The plants can’t take it anymore, the ground is drier, it’s not humid anymore like it used to be,” she says categorically.
It means that only half of her neighbors planted corn this year. Everyone else, including Catarina Sica, didn’t even bother.
“There isn’t rain, and the time has passed for us to plant,” Sica says while showing the black, white, and yellow seeds still on the cob of corn.
‘Migratory impact’
The brutal challenges of working the fields in Cunen, for years, were eased with remittances migrants sent home from the US. Yet Donald Trump’s mass deportations have taken away that support.
Around 24,000 Guatemalans have been deported this year, many from Quiche.
The deportations have paralyzed the construction of homes - the great dream of many migrants - as well as the jobs that go with it.
Families now deal with the crisis by raising pigs, sheep, chickens and turkeys for sale.
Sica’s husband returned two years ago after saving enough money to build a concrete house. Now he works occasionally in agriculture, though the US$10 daily wage he earns means the family diet is limited to beans, herbs and potatoes, like most locals.
“We’re seeing what to do, but it all depends on God,” the woman says with resignation. — AFP
UN agency warns El Nino likely by August, raising risk of heatwaves, droughts and extreme weather
- Admin UKK
- Berita
GENEVA, June 2 — There is an 80-per cent chance of the warming El Nino phenomenon developing between June and August, increasing the risk of extreme weather events, the World Meteorological Organization said today.
“Fuelled by unusually warm ocean waters in the tropical Pacific, El Nino conditions are developing and are set to influence global temperature and rainfall patterns,” the United Nations’ weather and climate agency (WMO) said.
Forecasts from the WMO global network “indicate a pronounced shift toward El Nino conditions, with probabilities reaching 80 percent for June-August”, the Geneva-based organisation said.
El Nino is a natural climate phenomenon that warms surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, bringing worldwide changes in winds, pressure and rainfall patterns.
It typically takes place every two to seven years and lasts around nine to 12 months.
Conditions oscillate between El Nino and its opposite La Nina, with neutral conditions in between.
The likelihood of El Nino developing by November is “near or above 90 percent”, and most forecast models suggest it will be “at least moderate—and possibly strong”, the WMO said in its quarterly El Nino/La Nina update.
WMO chief Celeste Saulo said the world therefore needed to get ready for an El Nino which could “exacerbate drought and heavy rainfall and increase the risk of heatwaves both on land and in the ocean”.
The WMO says that even a moderate El Nino makes some weather and climate extremes more likely.
The last El Nino contributed to making 2023 the second-hottest year on record and 2024 the all-time high at around 1.55C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average.
Urgent climate warning
In late April to mid-May, the sea-surface temperature in the central-eastern Equatorial Pacific—the area used as a monitoring reference—was approaching El Nino thresholds, the WMO said, with sub-surface temperatures more than 6C above average.
Meanwhile, the Southern Oscillation Index—the atmospheric component of El Nino—is also consistent with El Nino conditions developing.
The WMO said there was no evidence that climate change increases the frequency or intensity of El Nino events.
However, it can amplify the associated impacts, it says, because a warmer ocean and atmosphere increase the availability of energy and moisture for extreme weather events, such as heatwaves and heavy rainfall.
“El Nino is arriving on our doorstep,” UN chief Antonio Guterres said in a video message.
“The world must treat it as the urgent climate warning it is. El Nino conditions will pour fuel on the fire of a warming world. Impacts will hit even harder, travel even farther, and cross borders with devastating speed.
“The only effective response is climate action equal to the crisis—ending the addiction to fossil fuels, accelerating the shift to renewables, protecting the most vulnerable, and delivering early warning systems for all.”
Temperatures above normal
The WMO said that for June to August, forecasts project “a nearly universal dominance of above normal temperatures in nearly all parts of the globe”.
This increases the risk of compounding hazards in some regions, and accelerating the onset of drought conditions where rainfall is reduced, it said.
Regional climate centres are predicting “below-normal” rainfall during the critical June-September rainy season in the northern Greater Horn of Africa; below-average monsoon rainfall in south Asia; and drier and warmer summer conditions in central America.
During the northern hemisphere summer, warm waters associated with El Nino can fuel hurricanes in the central and eastern Pacific, while hindering their development in the Atlantic Ocean.
The WMO hopes advance warning will guide preparedness, especially in climate-sensitive sectors like agriculture, water management, energy and health. — AFP
Minor quake hits Sabah
- Admin UKK
- Berita
PETALING JAYA: A weak earthquake measuring 2.9 on the Richter scale occurred in Kundasang, Sabah, this morning.
The meteorological department (MetMalaysia) said the tremor was recorded at 10.36am at a depth of 10km, about 15km northwest of Ranau.
MetMalaysia said tremors may have been felt in several areas of Sabah, adding that the department had been monitoring the situation.
The last quake in the area occurred on April 21, measuring 3.4 on the Richter scale.
JOHOR BAHRU: Jabatan Bomba dan Penyelamat Malaysia (JBPM) Johor sudah memadam kebakaran kawasan 0.8 daripada keseluruhan 2.4 hektar tanah gambut yang terjejas di TD Farm Tanah, Kampung Paya Kopi, Pagoh di sini, setakat semalam.
Jurucakapnya berkata, kawasan seluas 1.6 hektar bagaimanapun masih terbakar. Katanya, operasi pemadaman semalam dijalankan tujuh anggota serta dua utiliti.
Menurutnya, ketua operasi turut mengarah anggota menjalankan operasi pemadaman menggunakan sumber air terbuka dengan satu unit pam mudah alih.
"Kebakaran masih aktif di kawasan seluas 1.6 hektar.
"Operasi ditangguhkan pada jam 7 malam (tadi) dan anggota serta jentera kembali ke Balai Bomba dan Penyelamat (BBP) Pagoh," katanya dalam satu kenyataan media.
Sebelum ini, JBPM menerima panggilan kecemasan pada jam 11.49 pagi 29 Mei lalu berhubung kebakaran kawasan tanah gambut itu sebelum operasi pemadaman dilancarkan.
Pada Ahad lalu, kebakaran merebak meliputi kawasan 2.4 hektar, dengan pasukan bomba terus bertungkus lumus menjalankan operasi pemadaman.
Kabinet Thailand lulus projek bersama Malaysia kurangkan risiko banjir di Lembangan Sungai Golok
- Admin UKK
- Berita
BANGKOK: Kabinet Thailand meluluskan projek alam sekitar bersama Malaysia yang bertujuan mengurangkan risiko banjir, meningkatkan keselamatan air dan memulihkan ekosistem di Lembangan Sungai Golok, iaitu laluan air merentas sempadan utama yang menghubungkan kedua-dua negara.
Inisiatif yang mendapat sokongan dana sebanyak US$4 juta (RM15.9 juta) daripada Kemudahan Alam Sekitar Global (GEF) itu akan dilaksana dalam tempoh 48 bulan dengan sokongan Pertubuhan Makanan dan Pertanian Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (FAO).
Timbalan Jurucakap Kerajaan Thailand, Lalida Persvivatana, berkata projek itu dibangunkan secara bersama oleh Pejabat Sumber Air Kebangsaan Thailand dan Jabatan Pengairan dan Saliran (JPS) Malaysia untuk menambah baik pengurusan banjir, menangani hakisan tebing sungai serta memperkukuh pengurusan sumber air merentas sempadan di Lembangan Sungai Golok.
"Projek ini mencerminkan komitmen kedua-dua negara dalam memperkukuh keselamatan alam sekitar dan memastikan pengurusan mampan bagi sumber air yang dikongsi bersama," katanya dalam satu kenyataan selepas mesyuarat Kabinet, semalam.
Lalida berkata, inisiatif berkenaan akan meningkatkan kerjasama dua hala melalui pembangunan pangkalan data bersama, penilaian risiko banjir dan kemarau, serta pelan tindakan strategik bersama untuk lembangan sungai itu.
"Ia juga akan mempromosikan penyelesaian berasaskan alam semula jadi bagi memulihkan ekosistem dan mengurangkan kesan cabaran alam sekitar terhadap komuniti di dalam lembangan berkenaan," katanya.
Sungai Golok membentuk sebahagian daripada sempadan semula jadi antara selatan Thailand dan utara Semenanjung Malaysia, dan sering terkesan oleh banjir bermusim yang menjejaskan komuniti di kedua-dua belah sempadan.
– BERNAMA