David Vargas
ASUNCION, Sep 14 2007 (IPS) – Satellite images show Paraguay s territory covered with small red dots. Fires have devastated 400,000 hectares, and over 15,000 people are homeless. The government is being accused of excessive delay in acting on the emergency.
In the last three weeks, about 1,700 fires have broken out, especially in the north of the country. They have razed populated areas, forests, crops and pastures in what is being regarded as the worst tragedy of the past decade.
The farmers and ranchers who have lost crops, livestock and their homes complain about the slow reaction by the administration of Nicanor Duarte, which, in spite of warnings about the uncontrollable spread of the fires, did not declare a national emergency until Wednesday.
Fires have broken out in different parts of the country, but the most critical situation is in the north, in four of the 17 departments (provinces) of the country: Amambay, Concepción, San Pedro and Presidente Hayes.
The government has sent in reinforcements for the fire-fighting brigades. Retired General José Kanasawa, the head of the National Emergency Secretariat, told IPS that about 1,000 people, including soldiers and rescue workers, have gone to the affected zones, where roughly the same number of people are already working.
The complexity of the situation is such that it is beyond human control. All we can do is contain and resist it, prevent the fire from spreading, and pray for rain, he said.
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The government has asked Argentina, Chile and Venezuela for additional help, on top of the assistance being provided since last week by Brazil.
The Brazilian authorities, who are facing the same problem in areas close to the Paraguayan border, sent four water bomber planes, which in the last few days have dropped more than 500,000 litres of water on the flames.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez promised to send a Russian-built Ilyushin 76 plane, with a water bombing capacity of 41,000 litres per flight. Its rental costs one million dollars.
The severe drought in the region complicates the efforts of firefighters and soldiers, who also lack proper tools for their work. They are using machetes and other agricultural equipment in their efforts to control the flames.
Kanasawa said that most of the fires were intentionally set by small farmers and ranchers, who customarily use burning to renew pastures and clean up wooded fields.
They didn t take into account the extremely dry environment. The fire spread and when it reached the forests it went out of control, he said.
Although the slash-and-burn technique is illegal in Paraguay, it is still a common practice in rural areas because of the widespread belief that it renews the soil.
A team of agents from the Ministerio Público, headed by Attorney-General Rubén Candia, set out to the affected zone to investigate complaints about arson.
The weather forecast for coming weeks offers little in the way of hope.
The head of the forecasting division at the Agriculture Ministry, Roberto Salinas, told IPS that although drought is normal at this time of year, there has been less rain this year than in previous years. Rain heavy enough to help put out the fires can only be expected in another two to three weeks.
Alberto Soljancic, president of the Rural Association of Paraguay, which represents the country s livestock farmers, compared the fires with the hurricanes that have been devastating Caribbean shores.
The consequences are equally catastrophic, he told IPS. His 2,000-hectare property in San Pedro was practically consumed by fire.
Unfortunately, we took too long to understand the extent of the danger, and we acted too late, as usual, he said.
Although there are no official estimates, Soljancic calculated losses to the productive sector at more than 10 million dollars.
The general secretary of the National Coordinating Committee of Campesino (small farmer) Organisations (MCNOC), Luis Aguayo, said that they would ask the government for subsidies in order to cope with their losses.
It will take small farmers six months to grow food to support their families. In the mean time, they have to survive somehow, Aguayo told IPS.
Hospitals and health centres in the fire zones are crowded with patients suffering from respiratory problems and skin and eye ailments. The Paraguayan Medical Association recommended evacuation of patients with allergies.
The critical zones are some 300 kilometres away from Asunción, but even here the effects of the fires can be felt. The city has been covered with smoke for days, provoking eye and skin irritation among local residents. The international Silvio Pettirossi airport has also had to close down on a number of occasions.
Several flights were rerouted to Ciudad del Este, 330 kilometres from Asunción. Although flight services are returning to normal, aviation director Hugo Aquino warned that visibility will remain poor until the rains come.
Environmental organisations are concerned about the long-term effects of the forest fires.
The more than 400,000 hectares of burnt forest are irreplaceable, Danilo Salas of the non-governmental Moisés Bertoni Foundation told IPS.
And unless measures are taken, he warned, people could fall prey to malaria, dengue fever, or other diseases.
We need all of the public and private agencies to coordinate preventive and corrective action. It s ridiculous that while the country is burning up, country people can still be seen along the roads lighting fires. We re not learning from our mistakes, he concluded.