For the last five years El Salvador has been affected by drastic changes in weather conditions ranging from droughts to tropical depressions. During rainy seasons heavy rains and major landslides have caused many human casualties and severe devastation to entire regions, destroying houses and staple crops in poor communities.

At the beginning of October 2003, heavy rains, landslides and flooding resulted in the evacuation of several thousand people in the capital San Salvador and in the western department of Sonsonate and San Vicente, in the central part of the country.

The flooding has destroyed or damaged hundreds of houses in poor communities in various areas of San Salvador, sweeping away homes and possessions. Most of the severely affected people have been evacuated by first-aid organisations. The National Institute for Children (ISNA) evacuated 228 children from their facilities after the building was flooded by strong water currents coming from a near-by creek. San Salvador Municipality field staff have provided some assistance to the affected communities.

ACT members the Lutheran World Federation, Department of World Service (LWF/DWS) El Salvador and Diakonie Emergency Aid (DEA) are proposing assistance in the form of agricultural inputs, earthquake resistant housing and disaster preparedness training.

The Salvadoran Lutheran Synod (SLS) is currently finalising a proposal which will be included in a revision of this appeal.

Project Completion Date:

30 September 2004

Signed by:
Thor-Arne Prois, ACT Director

For full details of proposals and budgets, please click below to download a PDF file of the entire Appeal.

El Salvador - Emergency Relief to Victims of Floods & Landslides - LASA31 (file size: 56 Kb)

To view a PDF file, you need the Acrobat Reader software, which can be downloaded free of charge from:

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/acrwin.html