El Ninõ: Sergipe has more than 200 water trucks in operation to serve municipalities affected by the drought

Sergipe has more than 200 water tankers in operation to minimize the impacts of drought and drought in the state. The information was released by the Deputy Undersecretary of State Civil Defense, Lieutenant Colonel Silvio Prado this Tuesday (10).

"Today we already have an operation with a total of 209 water trucks working both for the city council, the state government and the Brazilian army to support these people who do not have a running water supply in their homes", he said.

According to him, the supply is carried out directly in the residences' cisterns, with the aim of guaranteeing water for the population's basic needs.

In addition to the supply, a price registration protocol was adhered to for the acquisition of forage material, which is a mixture of cultivated or native plants used to feed farmed animals.

Still according to Silvio Prado, another initiative to reduce the impacts of the drought is the possibility of distributing basic food baskets to affected families. He said that more than 30 thousand baskets are foreseen in price registration minutes to serve municipalities if necessary.

The State Civil Defense also monitors the situation of the 14 municipalities in Sergipe that declared an emergency this Monday (9) and does not rule out new cities joining the list.

"These two new ones that entered, which were Pinhão and Tomar do Geru, are municipalities that do not have the habit of declaring an emergency situation. In the last 15 years, they have only declared it four times. So, we already understand, that it is a thermometer that more municipalities that do not usually declare an emergency situation can declare it from now on towards the end of the year or beginning of next year", he stated.

The undersecretary also reinforced that farmers should avoid new plantations during this period. "We have no prospect of intense rains from this moment on, nor distributed rains. So, everyone who eventually tries to plant some type of plantation will lose their crops."

The population must use the water stored in cisterns consciously, prioritizing essential activities, such as food and hydration. The guideline is to avoid waste so that water stocks last longer during the dry period.