Week Thirteen

Coastal Hazards

    El Salvador faces quite a few coastal hazards, from flooding to big storms to tsunamis. According to UNDP reports. 88.7 percent of El Salvador's territory is susceptible to severe impacts of natural disasters and approximately 95.4 percent of El Salvador's population is at some risk. El Salvador's most recent coastal hazard was tropical storm Julia. El Salvador received impact of tropical storm Julia, which entered the national territory in the early morning October 10 with winds between 40 to 70 km/h. According to assessment report from the salvadorean Red Cross Society, there were 10 reported deaths and more than 9,000 people affected. There were about 53 large-scale floods in various part of the country.

The country had The Ministry of Public Work sent out about 50 crews to aid affected people. Shelters were up and the Salvadorean government  helped provide food and hygiene supplies. Funds were created to help support the affected areas and people.

    El Salvador has 321 kilometer coastline affected by environmental problems that include contamination from agrochemicals and domestic and industrial discharges, solid waste, mainly plastic, coastal erosion, "red tides" that cause toxins representing high health risks. Also, expansion of human settlements due to tourism projects.

    The coastal area of El Salvador has low coverage of sanitary sewage and no wastewater treatment which leads to high levels of pollution of various kinds. Theres been heavy metals detected in fish at concentrations that exceed 12 times the regulatory level for human consumption, high levels of ammonia in water and very high health risks due to contamination of solid waste and organic matter in some coastal areas of the country. The latest data collected for solid waste indicates that more than 106,000 tons of plastic are discarded each year in El Salvador.

    The Laboratorio de Toxinas of the University of El Salvador (LABTOX-UES) maintains a permanent program for monitoring harmful algal blooms in the coastal zone since 2007. This helps provide information for decision-making government institutions. Thanks to permanent monitoring since this laboratory has been operating, El Salvador has not reported deaths from red tide. 

                   

Sources:

https://www.ecured.cu/Laboratorio_de_Toxinas_Marinas_(El_Salvador)

https://remarco.org/en/el-salvador/#:~:text=El%20Salvador%20has%20a%20321,risk%2C%20coastal%20erosion%2C%20sedimentation%20of

https://thinkhazard.org/en/report/75-el-salvador/CF
https://reliefweb.int/report/el-salvador/el-salvador-tropical-storm-julia-emergency-plan-action-epoa-dref-operation-no-mdrsv015