A state of emergency to allow the government to send more money to people to help control the fires, the minister said.

Ecuador has declared a 60-day state of emergency as the South American country has been hit by a severe drought and record fires that have ravaged large swaths of territory in recent weeks.

The Ecuadorian Secretariat for Risk Management (SNGR), the country’s emergency management agency, said in a statement Monday that the state of emergency was declared “due to forest fires, water shortages and drought.”

It will allow the government to mobilize funds and send more people to help fight the fires, Environment Minister Ines Manzano said.

Approved by the Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition, it will allow the release of funds to deal with the multifaceted crisis, SNGR also said.

Authorities are battling 17 active fires, which have mainly affected the provinces of Azuay and Loja in southern Ecuador. Five other fires were controlled recently, the secretariat said.

The fires in the two provinces affected about 10,200 hectares (25,204 acres) of forest and land.

In September, a massive fire threatened the country’s capital, Quito, covering it with smoke and ash. More than 2,000 firefighters, rescuers and members of the military were called in to evacuate residents and battle the blaze.

Ecuador is facing its worst drought in 60 years, which has affected water levels in hydroelectric dams – a source of more than 70% of the country’s power.

Since October, the government has had to impose daily blackouts of up to 14 hours a day, urging the 17 million people to conserve energy.

right Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS)which monitors fires around the world, the fire danger forecast in Ecuador is expected to increase from high to extreme in the affected provinces.

Record fires have also broken out in other South American countries, including Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia and Peru, as the region has been hit by severe drought.

The American space agency NASA reported this plumes of smoke could be seen from space in several parts of the region from July to October as a result of the fires, while rivers in the Amazon basin fell to record low levels last month.

The drought, which has steadily worsened since the second half of 2023, has been linked to the El Nino weather phenomenon and climate change.