EscucharMANAGUA - In common with much of the rest of the region, Nicaragua is currently suffering the effects of fire; both natural forest fires and farmers' crop burning.
Huge clouds of smoke are covering practically all of the country as crop burning (a traditional practice to prepare the land for the new agricultural year) has gotten out of hand, producing problems for citizens' health and aerial navigation.
``Some commercial flights were unable to take off today (Sunday) from Managua International Airport because of the concentration of smoke,'' Albania Cordonero, a technician at the National Meteorological Service, told news agency AP over the telephone.
Cordonero added that pilots need 5 kilometers visibility (3 miles) to take off and land safely at Managua. Yesterday morning, visibility was down to around 2 kilometers (1.2 miles).
Furthermore, the smoke also affects night-time operations. Since the beginning of last week, many flights have been unable to land and therefore forced to return home.
``These problems will surely cause great economic losses for the country,'' Cordonero concluded.
In Nicaragua the agricultural system that still prevails relies upon farmers burning the scrub before planting grain, in order to kill damaging insects and, supposedly, improve the fertility of the land.
However, government officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG in Spanish) and Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARENA in Spanish) recently announced the formation of an ad hoc Emergency Committee to stop the fires in the country.
The last few weeks have seen the burning of vast amounts of scrub and trees throughout the country. Public health is seriously at risk -- especially for those with bronchial problems -- as smoke affects people's lungs, noses, throats and eyes.
As if this were not enough, the fires have also caused higher temperatures, with daily temperature highs of between 35 C and 37 C (approaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit).
The Vice-Minister of MAG, Horacio Jarquín, stated yesterday that the committee is looking into scientific methods of stimulating fertility, with the hope of finding one that might persuade the farmers to stop burning their fields.
It is calculated that between 80 and 100 hectares of forest are destroyed in these fires every year.
``These are bad agricultural habits, and now it is time to put an end to these old wives' tales,'' said MARENA Vice-Minister Francisco Guerra. ``We have to teach the farmers that the fires leave behind nothing more than burnt inorganic material.''
Region-wide fire
Nicaragua is not the only country to be suffering from fires: Honduras is also in the grip of the same problem.
Toncontín International Airport in Tegucigalpa is currently closed to all flights because of the density of the smoke from fires. The airport is already regarded as ``high risk'' because of the surrounding mountains and its short runways: with visibility of only 300-500 meters (330-550 yards), it is completely unusable.
For some months now fears have been rising that high temperatures and sustained dry weather caused by El Niño will lead to forest fires in the region.
These fears now prove to have been well founded. As well as the problems in Nicaragua and Honduras, Guanacaste, in the North-West of Costa Rica, was hit by forest fires in April.
