The Inter-American Development Bank today announced the approval of its second $20 million loan for emergency reconstruction for El Salvador, which was hit by two devastating earthquakes earlier this year.
Just as the IDB’s first emergency loan, this new operation will bolster a Salvadoran program that is providing basic building materials to tens of thousands of families who lost their homes due to the January 13 and the February 13 earthquakes. Also, part of the resources of the new loan will support a program to repair and protect roads damaged by the quakes.
The emergency loans, as well as other resources supplied by the IDB over the past few months, seek to help El Salvador address the most pressing needs of people affected by the quakes, rekindle economic activities and restore social services more quickly and efficiently.
"The basic housing kits will provide families with much needed shelter before the rainy season hits, and give them a jump-start on permanent rebuilding by clearing rubble and helping them return to their lots," said IDB project team leader Caroline Clarke.
Currently, the Bank is preparing a larger loan for El Salvador to support a broad housing—sector reform and finance permanent reconstruction of homes destroyed or damaged by earthquake—triggered landslides.
The impact of this year’s quakes, which killed more than 1,100 people, left nearly 200,000 families temporarily homeless and caused more than $1.6 billion in economic damage, prompted the international community to offer more than $1.3 billion in aid to El Salvador.
IDB emergency loans
The emergency loans, prepared under the IDB’s special facility for countries hit by natural disasters, will help El Salvador’s Social Investment Fund for Local Development* (FISDL) supply over 70,000 families with basic housing kits. According to government estimates, the earthquakes destroyed nearly 150,000 houses.
Under the program, the FISDL signs agreements with each participating municipality, spelling out eligibility criteria and the number of beneficiaries in each district and outlining responsibilities for delivering services. Municipal authorities will post lists of families that receive aid while FISDL will issue reports on contracts awarded using loan resources. An independent auditing firm will conduct a concurrent review of all stages of this program.
The $13.8 million temporary housing component of the IDB’s second emergency loan will be targeted to La Paz, Cuscatlán, San Vicente and Cabañas, the four departments hit hardest by the February 13 earthquake.
FISDL’s program, which is being carried out in close coordination with municipal authorities across El Salvador, also finances the clean up and removal of debris. For some 4,000 families that have had to move because their homes were in high-risk areas, the program will provide up to $200 per family to help them lease another lot with an option to purchase.
The $5.0 million component for road repair and protection will help the Ministry of Public Works** continue to remove debris and open 443 km along 49 stretches of El Salvador’s road system affected by the second earthquake. This program also entails stabilizing small slopes in high-risk areas near roadways and repairing rain runoff ditches.
Using resources from the first IDB emergency loan, the Agriculture and Environment and Natural Resources ministries launched a hillside stabilization program with the goal of abating these hazards ahead of the upcoming rainy season.
Other IDB actions
Over the past few months the IDB has taken several steps to help El Salvador recover from the earthquakes. The Bank:
- organized the March 7 meeting in Madrid that raised $1.3 billion in pledges from the international community to support El Salvador’s emergency efforts and reconstruction plans,
- reprogrammed $177.3 million in resources from approved projects to finance the repair and reconstruction of housing, schools, hospitals and health care units, drinking water and sewage systems, roads and bridges, and mitigation of natural hazards.
- earmarked a $11.4 million tranche of a new $58 million rural roads improvement loan to repair 100 km of roads damaged by the January 13 quake,
- donated $250,000 to help El Salvador’s government cover emergency spending and to prepare their documentation for the Madrid donors meeting,
- reviewed its portfolio of programs in El Salvador to tailor them to the requirements of reconstruction.