Las Salinas

Lux-Development project helps flooded village ‘Las Salinas’ Jinotepe, 26th October 2007 After hurricane Felix hit the north Atlantic coast of Nicaragua in the beginning of September and left it in a complete state of destruction, Mother Earth recently punished the inhabitants of one of the poorest countries in Latin America with yet another natural disaster. As a consequence to the 52 days of persistent rainfall, the nation currently faces severe inundations in 11 of its 17 regions which devastated the homes, crops, livestock and basic working conditions of more than 225,000 citizens, restricting their daily life to the mere search for survival. By now, the inhabitants of some central and northern Pacific districts like Chinandega, León, Matagalpa and Madriz are alarmed by the consequences of the floods: the prices of basic foods like beans, corn and rice are rising on a daily basis; infectious diseases like ‘Leptospirosis’ have already taken several lives, with the number of epidemic deaths expected to increase significantly over the next few weeks; and already, the damage caused to flora and fauna in the country is partly irreversible. In this situation of human distress, Project Manager Joel Astruc and his NIC/022 “Ruta de Café” project team, active in Estelí, Madriz, Nueva Segovia, Jinotega and Matagalpa, are doing their very best to be of assistance to the people in the affected areas.

However, not only the north goes through difficult times but also the three departments of Masaya, Carazo and Rivas, in which Project NIC/020 operates. These departments too have had to bear the effects caused by the constant precipitation of the past two months. In Carazo, more than 900 hectares of red bean cultivations were lost; most rural paths have been washed away in the region and the price for one pound of beans is reaching one dollar. Further south in Rivas, 80 kilometers of road collapsed and 225 hectares of corn as well as 200 hectares of bean plantations were destroyed. Under such circumstances, Project Manager Dr. Christine Chevalier considered it to be the project’s moral responsibility to use part of the project’s funds for natural disaster relief and reacted to a request formulated by the indigenous community of ‘Las Salinas’ (Rivas), with which the project had built up a relationship of trust in previous years of professional collaboration. After several days of disconnection from the regional capital of Rivas, the water having destroyed their salt production fields and most of the crops they depend on for their self-sufficiency, Bartolomé López, President of the indigenous community of ‘Las Salinas’, turned towards the Lux-Development Primary Health Care Project NIC/020 for support. He needed help to obtain the much-needed food supplies for his people. Due to the nation wide flooding situation, big quantities of basic foods were hard to come by, but for several days the team of Project NIC/020 pulled every possible string to find 3.5 tons of rice, 3.5 tons of corn, 1 ton of beans, 350 kilograms of sugar, a 100 kilograms of salt, 500 liters of vegetable oil and 2’000 meters of plastic sheets. These were transported in two loads to Tola (Rivas), on October 23rd and 24th. Arriving at the prearranged meeting point in Tola, we could make out a large group of people awaiting our truck with much anticipation.

They had hired their own truck to make the trip to ‘Las Salinas’. Luckily it had stopped raining for a few days, so the track was more or less passable. The atmosphere during the loading of food sacks from one truck to the other was cheerful, even relaxed and in no time the emergency foodstuffs were ready to make the last leg of their journey. Truly, the reward for all of us who had participated in this food aid initiative was to see the bright smiles on the faces of these brave men and women as we were leaving Tola.

Laurence Klein, Junior Technical Assistant NIC/020