El Salvador Earthquake: The tecnology helps in the disasters

Author : Christian Guevara Guadrón
Date added : 2002-04-15

Brief Project Background

The web page related mainly what the United Nations Agencies System was carrying out in the most affected places, got out. At same time, the web page has a meticulous registration of the done contributions by the international community. The project SIGCO adopted the name of Terremoto El Salvador (www.terremotoelsalvador.org.sv).

The earthquake of January 13 2001 was devastating for El Salvador. The tectonic plates in the Salvadorian coast was the epicenter of a violent earthquake of 7.6 degrees on Ritcher´s scale. Exactly one moth later (February 13) another powerful earthquake by shook the central region of the country and destroyed what was remaining after the first quake

Both earthquakes affected different zones. The first one damaged mainly : La Libertad, Sonsonate, San Salvador and San Miguel cities, the ones with higher economic activity. The second one destroyed mainly Cuscatlan, San Vicente, Usulutan and La Paz department, mostly poor rural communities

The destruction caused both earthquakes was impressive: 1,142 persons died, and more than 8,000 were injured. 41,440 small businesses and 55,000 jobs were lost. 144 public heath centers and 23 hospitals were damaged or destroyed. In the economic field, the total losses were US$1,660 millions, equivalent to 13% of the GDPand to 55% of the exports According to the Human Development Report of El Salvador in 2001(IDHES), both earthquakes caused losses representing the development that the country had accumulated in the last four years.

The final report of the Committee of National Emergencies (COEN) stated that 25.6% of the population was affected, that is more than 1 million of Salvadorian. In cities like San Vicente, Usulutan and La Paz, 80% was affected. 250,000 Salvadorian fell in extreme poverty because of the tragedy.


The origin of the Terremoto El Salvador project

Four days after the first earthquake , a group was formed to initiate the SIGCO project , SIGCO was created as an answer to the necessity to have a tool that allows easy registration and the tracking of the contributions of the international community, consolidation and diffusion of the information generated during an emergency and real time tracking of the changing necessities of the affected populations.. The utilization of Internet allowed all this, and the instant update, exchange of information without restrictions and worldwide diffusion,.
In three days, with support from OCHA and PNUD local office, the SIGCO webpage was on line... with a database of the donors contributions and various situation reports. The project SIGCO adopted the name of Terremoto El Salvador (www.terremotoelsalvador.org.sv).

Results

The profits and problems

In its first days, the website consisted mostly of information processed by the agencies of the United Nations system Different embassies were informing about the contributions given by the governments and international organisms, originating the database more complete than existed in that field.

At the same time, i reports, news and official notices of NGO working in the affected areas was published, creating a permanent flow of new information in the website.

In the field, the efforts of all the actors involved in the emergency increased, but the main problem was the lack of coordination, provoking, unnecessary duplication of the work in some zones. Due to that, actors saw in the Terremoto El Salvador website an opportunity to share precise and updated information and avoid misuse of the resources . Luis Sanchez, from CARE, one of the NGO with more experience in the country, recognizes the support that Terremoto El Salvador offered: . "Organizations like the one I work for could accede to documents that would be difficult to obtain by other means, reason why it was possible to plan and coordinate better the efforts of answer to the emergency,".

Lessons

One of the great achievements of Terremoto El Salvador were to make the NGO, understood the importance of making public the information that they were generating. Godofredo Echeverria, Web masters of the project, remembers that the work of Terremoto El Salvador when publishing quickly the information became so efficient, that the directors or coordinators of NGO got to develop one narrow entailment. "Cases in which the directors of the NGO called by telephone asking why we had not published its information, when just they had sent it. They really were interested in that its information was published", explains Echeverria.

Terremoto El Salvador also had an important recognition from other sectors. One of most important newspapers of the country and influential magazine of investigative journalism mentioned in their computer science sections the excellent work done by the project and they described the site like the main place where "reliable information could be obtained on the earthquake."

Development Impacts

The main problem: the lack of access to Internet

A second earthquake shook El Salvador a month after the first one. That same day, Terremoto El Salvador received more than 5,000 visits, more than any other site dedicated to the emergency. The amount of visits was a sample of the achieved success

El Salvador is a country with a low index of people with access to Internet. According to the last statistics, only 1,25% of the salvadoeian population uses that type of technology. Terremoto El Salvador had to face that serious problem, but the answer was good and it was reached the 45.000 visits during the emergency. "Although many consider that the Internet is a factor that just must be introduced when the basic necessities have been covered in a community, examples as the one of Terremoto El Salvador demonstrates that the Internet is a valuable tool to overcome these necessities," explained Sabas Monroy, of the FISDL, one of the governmental institutions in charge to offer aid to the victims. Also, for Giovanni Berti, from the National Commission of Development, Terremoto El Salvador "it is an important step in the adoption of new technologies for the development".

Terremoto El Salvador had demonstrated that it was possible to create a useful a Webpage for a large number of users with a small working group and very low costs: In addition, it verified again that a close relation with all the actors is key issue for useful information initiatives.

Project Information

Organisation : UNDP El Salvador
URL : http://www.terremotoelsalvador.org.sv
Total budget in US$ : 80,000 aprox.
Country of activity: El Salvador [SV]

Contact Information

Christian Guevara Guadrón
christian.guevara@undp.org

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