PERU: TUMBES: PRESIDENT FUJIMORI VISITS FLOOD DAMAGE AREAS

Описание: (16 Dec 1997) Spanish/Nat

Torrential rains in Peru have resulted in two deaths, ruptured dams and thousands of miles of burst river banks.

President Alberto Fujimori has visited the worst affected areas, mainly in the region of Tumbes, and said that damage ran into (m) millions of dollars (U-S).

Entire rice fields have been destroyed, but there is hope that banana crops could still be saved.

The Tumbes region near the border of neighbouring Ecuador has been inundated by torrential rain.

Peru's President Alberto Fujimori visited the flooded area to ascertain the damage for himself.

He estimated that some 2 (m) million dollars (U-S) worth of damage had been done.

The Peruvian president laid the blame for the flooding at the door of El Nino, the cyclone that has affected the world's weather patterns.

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"Firstly, the city of Tumbes and its fields have not suffered absolutely from the floods. Secondly, it seems that El Nino has hit the Tumbes region with some force: 1580 cubic metres of water per second. Hence we had to take a lot of precautions (to prevent flooding.) Thirdly, the drainage system is working well. The waters that have accumulated in the fields are receding and we hope that in 48 hours there won't been any flooded fields."
SUPER CAPTION: Alberto Fujimori, President of Peru

For the sake of the cameras the Peruvian president was not averse to do a spot of clearing up himself.

And the damage has not only been economic, so far two people are known to have died in the flooding.

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