The igneous emergency in Corrientes, with an official estimate of 9 percent of the provincial area affected by the fire, this Sunday had a relief due to the rains registered in four localities, with the expectation that they will extend from this Monday, while more assistance from the national government and other districts is deployed and it was announced support measures for affected products with credits for 500 million pesos.
The Secretary of Military Coordination for Emergency Assistance of the Ministry of Defense of the Nation, Roberto Corti, assured Telam that, as of this week, More intense rains are expected to calm the rural fires in Corrientes.
This Sunday it rained in the towns of Ituzaingó, Villa Olivari, Concepción and Loretowhere there were active foci of rural fire.
The governor Gustavo Valdes indicated in a Twitter message that, in the morning, rains were recorded in the interior of the province, in the northern, central and southern areas.
Rains begin to be recorded in the interior of the province, in the northern, central and southern areas.
We hope that the weather continues to accompany us.
– Gustavo Valdés (@gustavovaldesok) February 20, 2022
“We hope that the weather will continue to accompany us,” said the president, who this Sunday toured the town of Santo Tomé, on the coast of the Uruguay River, where firefighters from Cordoba, Buenos Aires and Brazil work.
Thus, Valdés thanked the contributions received both from the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, and from senator Luis Carlos Heinze, the governor of Rio Grande Do Sul, Eduardo Leite, and the mayor of São Borja, Eduardo Bonotto.
“Thank you (…) for helping us with various resources to face the fires,” Valdés said on Twitter.
Regarding the evolution of the emergency, Corti confirmed that “we have seen a decrease in the number of sources of fire”, although he clarified: “That does not necessarily mean that we are better.”
He explained that “the geographical location of those fires are the keysince they touch urbanized or populated points, vulnerable, even though quantitatively the situation shows improvements”.
However, he reviewed that there was no damage to the physical integrity of residents or brigadistas from the Nation and the province, as well as from other districts and even from Brazil who arrived to attack the emergency.
In turn, the Argentine ambassador to Bolivia, Ariel Basteiro, reported that “70 Bolivian brigade members leave for Corrientes tomorrow and Missions to help put out the fires in Argentina”.
70 Bolivian brigade members?? are leaving tomorrow for Corrientes and Misiones to help put out the fires in Argentina.??
His transfer was approved by President Lucho Arce and will also be approved by Parliament.
I open thread… pic.twitter.com/c84NqWUc0Y
– Ariel Basteiro?? (@Arielbasteiro) February 20, 2022
“His transfer was approved by the president (of Bolivia, Luis) Lucho Arce and will also be approved by the Parliament” of that country, Basteiro said on his Twitter account.
According to the Ministry of Defense, within the framework of the operations coordinated by the Operational Center of the National Fire Management Service in different provinces of the country, the Army and the Air Force expanded collaboration, adding personnel and means, to fight fires in Currents.
The tasks are supervised by Undersecretary Corti, together with other authorities of the portfolio.
Meanwhile, official sources indicated that President Alberto Fernández “speaks every day with the governor of Corrientes, Gustavo Valdés”, “sending all possible resources”, and is “available to travel if necessary”.
“It is an unprecedented ecological tragedy and it is not a time for disputes but for cooperation, effort and generosity“, the sources told Télam, who highlighted the “enormous recognition of all those who are carrying out the tasks of fighting the fire.”
Meanwhile, the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Julián Domínguez, and the deputy chief of staff, Jorge Neme, traveled to Corrientes this Sunday to “strengthen the actions of the national government and articulate, together with the provincial authorities, the response to the emergency caused by the forest fires.”
Domínguez and his partner from Productive Development, Matias Kulfasalso announced that they will allocate $500 million in loans to assist producers affected by the fires, financing that will be used for investment and also for working capital.
I want to convey to the producers of Corrientes the certainty that, from the National Government, we are working in coordination with the province and the municipalities to, through a common diagnosis, have an action plan in the face of this environmental disaster ? pic.twitter.com/jh2nIOAqv7
– Julian Dominguez (@DominguezJul) February 20, 2022
The credits can be requested through the Banco de Corrientes, they will have a 0% rate during the first year, subsidized by the National Fund for Productive Development (FONDEP) from the portfolio led by Minister Kulfas, and a grace period of 12 months. .
The line will have 100% guarantees from the Argentine Guarantee Fund (Fogar), which is administered by the Secretariat of Small and Medium Enterprises and Entrepreneurs of the Nation.
The national government is also working with multilateral financial organizations to activate lines of attention to disaster situations, which allow collaboration in an agile way with the regions involved, official sources added.
Regarding the economic damage, the rural fires and the extreme drought in Corrientes have already caused losses of more than 26,000 million pesos in the productive system of the province.
Forest producers, ranchers, herbalists, rice growers, citrus growers, beekeepers, large, medium, small and family farmers, summarize the passage of the fire that has already devastated almost 800 thousand hectares, with the same words: “catastrophe”, “tragedy”, ” pain”, “helplessness” and “hopelessness”.
“It’s a catastrophe of nature, I do not know if people reach dimension. The estuaries are burning, there are evacuations, a lot of damage to production, sadness and despair,” Pablo Sánchez, president of the Association of Rural Societies of Corrientes, told Télam.
On the other hand, regarding the impact on afforestation, the latest report from the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA), mentions that 31,265 hectares of cultivated forests were burned and the vice president of the Association of the Strategic Forestry Plan, Juan Ramón Sotelo, assured to Télam that the losses are “multimillionaires”.
Raymundo Meabe, president of the Argentine Forestry Association (AFOA), expressed himself in a similar vein, noting that losses in the sector exceed 10 billion pesos.
The National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) specified in its latest report on Saturday afternoon that an area equivalent to 9 percent of the surface of the province has already been crossed by fire.
There are 785,238 hectares burned until last February 16 and they correspond to rural areas, both productive and pastures, wetlands and estuaries.
To coordinate the actions to mitigate the catastrophe, the Nation and the provincial government set up a joint command and control center that works in the Ministry of Security of Corrientes.
Likewise, the main brigadista camp was set up at the “Ñande Roga” Agricultural Family School in Colonia San Antonio, a town in San Miguel, in the north-central part of the province, an access area to the Iberá estuaries.
There is a staff of 100 brigade members from Corrientes, the Nation and the province of Buenos Aires, while professional contributions and equipment from Jujuy, Mendoza, Córdoba, Entre Ríos, Chaco, Misiones, Santa Fe, San Juan, La Pampa, City of Buenos Aires and Tucumán.
Regarding the forecast of rains that help mitigate the impact of the fires, the agroclimatic specialist María Alejandra Ojeda told Telam that “instability lines are observed that could generate precipitation starting tomorrow, but of very few millimeters.”
“On Thursday and Friday it is possible that storms of greater intensity will develop,” specified Ojeda, coinciding with the forecast of the command and control center located in the capital.
Meanwhile, solidarity collection campaigns for resources to assist firefighters working in Corrientes are multiplying.
In addition to the Government of Corrientes, which collects donations in the provincial capital as well as in the Casa de Corrientes in Buenos Aires, various personalities joined the search for resources provided by society.
The influencer Santiago Maratea raised until this Sunday afternoon more than 100 million pesos with a collection launched last night on Instagram.
And the leading musician of the band Damas Gratis, Pablo Lescano, offered to perform in a show aimed at collecting aid for Corrientes.
“Corrientes Porá is burning. Anyone who can lend a hand?” Said the artist on Twitter and proposed: “I start: Where I give a show to raise funds, non-perishable food, medication for fauna. The authorities whistle that I’m like that saying:
If you have a problem, CURRENT will help you, vice versa chamigo “.
