Espírito Santo State Court Recommends 50 Measures for Super El Niño Preparedness

The Espírito Santo State Court of Accounts (TCE-ES) has recommended approximately 50 measures for the state government and municipalities to prepare for the impacts of the predicted Super El Niño phenomenon in 2026 and 2027. These recommendations, approved by the court's counselors and published in the Official Gazette, cover a range of critical areas including reinforcing medicine stocks, ensuring water supply, climatizing schools, and intensifying efforts against dengue. The court's guidance aims to mitigate the effects of extreme weather events such as prolonged droughts, heatwaves, floods, landslides, and increased climate-change-related diseases. The report draws upon studies from national and international institutions like Cemaden, ECMWF, NOAA, and the Australian meteorological service. The TCE-ES highlighted that there is a high probability of a Super El Niño forming from the second half of 2026, increasing the likelihood of extreme events in Espírito Santo, including extended droughts, above-average temperatures, water scarcity, forest fires, and isolated storms causing floods and landslides. Key recommendations include preparing for water scarcity, cleaning drainage systems, preparing public schools for heat and potential remote learning, mapping at-risk areas, identifying vulnerable families, raising public awareness on water conservation and dengue prevention, and planning for advance procurement to avoid emergency contracting during crises. The TCE-ES stressed that acting now presents a crucial window of opportunity to implement these preventive measures before the high-risk period of spring and summer 2026/2027, urging states and municipalities to allocate budget resources for these actions to reduce future emergency spending. Concurrently, the Espírito Santo government has established a task force to address the anticipated prolonged drought, particularly in the North and Northwest regions. This task force will operate through an Integrated Command and Control Center (CICC) to monitor the phenomenon, issue daily weather bulletins, and weekly reports. The government's plan also includes drilling 90 wells, hiring water trucks, installing new reservoirs, monitoring river levels, updating the State Water Resources Plan, and reducing water supply system losses. Environmental measures involve enhanced monitoring, educational campaigns, and increased efforts to prevent and combat forest fires. While drought and high temperatures are primary concerns, state civil defense officials caution that isolated heavy rainfall events remain possible, potentially causing localized flooding and landslides, especially in the southern region, which has a history of river silting and occupation of risk areas, similar to the tragedy in Mimoso do Sul.