The Guatemalan government has announced that it will donate 4,000 tons of food to approximately 170,000 families in the country who have been affected by an intense drought that has plagued the region recently.
Central America has been experiencing a heatwave and heavy drought in the last month, what experts associate with El Niño – the climate phenomenon characterized by warm ocean water currents in the Pacific Ocean that cause either extreme rainfall or drought.
The Guatemalan Agriculture Minister, Elmer Lopez, said in a press conference Monday that the assistance program to the affected agriculture communities will begin on October 1st and will continue for six months.
The extreme weather condition has affected the harvest of 170,000 families, many of which are in the west of the country.
It has also heavily damaged corn crops – the staple food of Guatemalans. The combined drought and heatwave has already affected about 28 municipalities in the north east of the country, the so-called dry corridor, and it is estimated that the country could lose up to 40 percent of its corn production.
The food distribution program – valued at US$63 million – will provide each family with 220 pounds of maize, 30 pounds of beans and an additional 17 pounds of flour to those with children bellow five-years-old.
The program is an initiative by the Guatemalan government and the World Food Program (WFP) reserves.
According to official figures, 53 percent of Guatemala's 15 million inhabitants live in poverty, and one in every six people live in extreme poverty.
Weather conditions in the region are expected to get worse. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), there is a 70 percent probability that El Niño will return to Central America in the last trimester of 2014.