QUITO - The Ecuadorian government prepares for the return this year of the phenomenon known as El Niño, a warm marine current in the Pacific Ocean that alters the normal patterns of rainfall and winds, causing the extremes of drought or floods.

The authorities resolved to ''urgently'' set up a National Committee for the Regional Study of El Niño, linked to the international Permanent Commission for the South Pacific (CPPS).

El Niño, the effects of which seem to be exacerbated by global climate change, caused economic losses totaling more than one billion dollars in 1997, destroying hundreds of kilometers of roads and thousands of hectares of crops along the Ecuadorian coast.

HAVANA - More than a third of the vegetables and other produce consumed in Cuba are grown within the island's urban areas.

Cuban authorities will showcase this mode of production as an example of eco-friendly farming at the fourth Organic Agriculture Meeting, to take place here in May with the participation of some 200 foreign experts.

he economic crisis throughout the 1990s forced Cubans to adopt new farming techniques and a management system to prevent soil degradation and the contamination of agricultural products.

Nearly 10,400 hectares are being utilized for urban agriculture, and this year are expected to yield nearly two million tons of food.

BOGOTA - Some 100,000 Wayuu indigenous peoples in northern Colombia are to benefit from an environmentally friendly sanitation plan launched by the Ministry of Development with backing from the Pan-American Health Organization.

The first stage of the project, implemented on the Guajira peninsula, consisted of improving water quality through low-cost technology for creating new wells and manually operated water pumps.

The second phase involves building sanitation units to treat water supplies. The Wayuu communities suffer from high levels of gastro-intestinal and parasite-based illnesses caused by drinking contaminated water.

BUENOS AIRES - The Greenpeace environmental organization's Argentine office revved up its own solar energy generator in April to provide electricity for its headquarters in the capital, and plans to contribute its surplus to the public network.

Oscar Soria, of Greenpeace-Argentina, reported that the purpose is to promote this alternative energy source, though he acknowledged that its costs are still higher than energy produced from conventional - and polluting - sources such as natural gas or coal.

As a symbolic act, the organization announced that it would return the electrical consumption meter to the energy company. Greenpeace will, however, continue to pay for the service in order to avoid legal complications.

There is great potential in Argentina to meet the nation's total energy needs using alternative technologies, like wind and solar power, Soria emphasized.