 Impact of tropical storm Agatha and thePacaya Volcano in Guatemala.
The assessment of damages and losses and the estimated sectoral needs caused by the passage of Tropical Storm Agatha and the eruption of Pacaya volcano was made at the request of the Government of Guatemala, as expressed by the Ministry of Finance to the World Bank, ECLAC, IDB, GFDRR and UNDP. The evaluation was conducted to support the government in defining financial requirements,and institutional arrangements necessary to overcome the impact of these two events -Pacaya and Agatha- which constitute a disaster and a challenge to the country. This evaluation was performed according to methodologies developed by the International Community of joint post-disaster assessment (PDNA) and is based on the one developed by ECLAC (DALA) of damage and losses and the estimate of increased human development needs to define a framework for post-disaster recovery. This assessment deals with a complex disaster that encompasses the impact of two events, overlapping their impacts and consequences: a major volcanic event with effects in an important part of the country, especially affecting the heart of the economic, social and political development, whose impact was compounded by the other event, covering the most vulnerable and densely populated part of the country with multivariate and multi-sector impacts.
The value of the damages and losses caused by the eruption of Pacaya and the tropical storm Agatha amounted to 7855.7 million Quetzales mately 982 million which represents little more than 2.2% of the gross domestic product. (Secctorial impact summary table) 
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Assessment of the impact of theTropical Storm "Agatha" in El Salvador. ECLAC provided technical assistance to the government of El Salvador and prepared, under the coordination of the Technical Secretariat of the Presidency, prepared a assesment on the Economic, Social and Environmental Impact of the Tropical Storm Agatha. A summary of this report was presented to the Ministerial Committee on Rehabilitation and Reconstruction. The evaluation was made possible thanks to the contribution of the relevant ministries and institutions. The evaluation was carried out by applying the Methodology for Assessing Environmental and Socioeconomic Impact of Disasters developed by ECLAC; methodology which was used for the Strategy and Plan of Rehabilitation and Reconstruction. "Agatha" hit this country last May, leaving behind 11 deaths, two missing persons and six injured, and an economic impact estimated at US$ 112 million, equivalent to more than 0.5% of GDP of the country. (Secctorial impact summary table) The impact of Agatha on the population and economy of El Salvador adds to the storm "Ida" in late 2009, showing that the Salvadoran population is highly vulnerable to new climatic events at the start of 2010 hurricane season. Against this background, the Government of El Salvador noted that risk management should be an integral part of its Five-Year Development Plan, including actions for strengthening and resilience building in several areas: watershed management, governance, land use planning, strengthening the climate change agenda and the creation of a disaster contingency fund for quick disbursement.
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| ECLAC provides technical cooperation to the Plurinational State of Bolivia. During July, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean will provide technical cooperation to the Plurinational State of Bolivia –at the request of the government of that country and with the support of the World Bank- to assess the impact of the phenomenon “El Niño”, which has severely beaten this nation and the rest of the Andean Community since last year. The phenomenon of "El Niño" began to manifest in the Andean Region since May 2009. By mid-June, the early stage of the formation of this phenomenon strongly impacted the climate of the summer, showing almost everywhere in the Tropical Pacific ocean temperatures with values ranging between 0.5 and 1.5 degrees Celsius above the average for this time ( (IDEAM). In Bolivia the presence of El Niño has resulted in heavy rains, floods, hailstorms, landslides and overflowing rivers in Santa Cruz, Cochabamba, Chuquisaca, Beni and La Paz, leaving ten persons dead and 22,000 affected families. Additionally, in the high valleys and part of the “altiplano”, the drought has strongly affected the agriculture and water supply, which has led the government to declare a national emergency.
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Handbook for Estimating the Socio-economic and Environmental Effects of Disasters.
