State of emergency declared in 893 districts of Peru due to El Nino

Peru declares state of emergency in 893 districts due to El Nino.

The Peruvian government has declared a state of emergency in 893 districts in 23 regions of the country starting September 1 due to the risk of heavy rains and floods caused by the El Nino phenomenon.

The state of emergency will last for 60 days. State and local authorities have been ordered to take immediate measures to prevent the risk of landslides, floods and inundation caused by heavy rainfall.

Officials have called for the strengthening of local infrastructure, the preparation of evacuation routes and the creation of humanitarian aid reserves in areas classified as very high risk. Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori said the scale of the threat is beyond the capabilities of local and regional authorities.

According to forecasts, the El Niño phenomenon is expected to reach an extreme level in Peru between September 2026 and January 2027.

According to a report by the Peruvian Committee for the Study of the phenomenon, the probability of an extreme El Niño in the coming months is about 70 percent.

El Niño is a natural phenomenon that causes water temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean to warm up above normal, which affects weather patterns around the world.

It was previously reported that El Niño has been significantly stronger over the past 40 years. Analysis of corals in the Galapagos Islands showed that temperature fluctuations associated with El Niño in the eastern Pacific Ocean have increased by 36.5 percent compared to pre-industrial times.