Ecuador declared a national emergency due to forest fires and drought

The Government of Ecuador declared a national emergency on Monday due to the drought crisis in the South American nation that has caused forest fires.

The information was provided by the National Secretariat for Risk Management (SNGR), which specified that the measure will have a period of 60 days, while noting that there are more than 10,000 hectares affected in the southern provinces of the country due to the fact that 17 active and five controlled fires have been registered.

To deal with the situation, the Foreign Ministry requested help to control the fire from the Governments of Peru and Italy, which they will support with air resources, according to a note from the Fuser web portal.

It should be noted that the drought has caused damage to the electrical service that has caused blackouts of 14 hours a day. The situation is also compounded by the lack of plant maintenance and investment in the sector, as well as corruption.