Tonight Toledo has been declared a disaster area as NEMO continues to monitor the ongoing wildfires and their aftermath.
The Minister of Disaster Risk Management Andre Perez says that they have partnered with other stakeholders in hopes of easing the blow that they have sustained both economically and ecologically as a result of the raging fires.
Andre Perez, Minister of NEMO
"The Toledo District has been declared a disaster area so now we are getting assistance from the Red Cross as well. They have reached out to our partners and they are assisting as well as to the US Embassy as well. We are receiving some items from them on Thursday so we have reached out to different partners and again it's working in collaboration with our regional partners as well you know in Guatemala in the Peten area a fire is raging so they are fighting and it's all communication and working together."
"And as we speak right now the jungle continues to burn down south in Toledo last night there were some threats for silver creek up in the mountain pine ridge fires continue to rage as much as 34 thousand acres of pine ridge has burned down south in Toledo district there are hundreds and millions of dollars in agriculture products and plantations have been lost in Cacao, beans you are talking about corn and even mahogany trees there is a farm there growing mahogany trees it's all gone so these fires are serious economically it is affecting us and it will continue to affect us and the livilihood of these people continue to be affected even the village of San Antonio is under threat now with their water lines and also the ecological disaster so all of this has to been quantified looking back and in terms of funding it is important and I'm happy to say and I'm glad to say that we as a government we are very proactive and we are working on it and also as the minister of disaster risk management as well we are here to fix things and make things better so it's ongoing and in committed to that."
