Seven people remain unaccounted for after floods this week due to uncharacteristically heavy rains in the Caribbean city of Santa Marta where the Guachaca River burst its banks. In the state of Caldas, better known for being coffee growing country, the departmental capital of Manizales has had its water supply compromised due to frequent landslides in the region. And in the Colombian capital of Bogota, traffic lights failed and the already creaky public transit system collapsed when major arteries, the sewer system and underpasses flooded.
Two Years of Natural Disasters in Colombia
The climatic phenomenon known as la Niña – forming with lower sea surface temperatures over the tropical regions of the Pacific Ocean and resulting in much higher and unseasonal rainfalls – began in earnest in Colombia in June 2010 and looks set to continue until early 2012 according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the US and the Colombian Instituto de Meteorologia y Estudios Ambientales (IDEAM).
With increased rainfalls extending between traditional rainy seasons and therefore hindering any and all attempts to recuperate and put into play contingency plans, Colombia is on her knees. The lowlands in the North and throughout much of the country are supersaturated and much of the mountainous Andean region is incommunicado due to landslides.
President Santos Calls Out to Local Municipalities
With a spate of scandals plaguing local municipalities regarding the sale of government supplied provisions for displaced families, President Santos has issued a decree that aid money and supplies will be delivered directly to those families affected. However, rescue and aid operations have hit a major stumbling block in the form of local elections, held in November 2011, and that will lead to a change of administration in most towns on January 1 2012. With this in mind, many outgoing mayors and local politicians have failed to act with sufficient alacrity to the natural disaster taking place.
According to reports from the Colombian Red Cross in the recent deluges, 159 people have been killed and more than 2 million overall are now homeless.
When Will the Rains End?
Colombia’s IDEAM first put the end of this wave of la Niña to occur at the end of November, this was then revised to December 15 and now the date has been put back to early 2012. Quite clearly climate patterns are unpredictable and there is no real certainty to any estimation. What remains clear is that Colombia will continue to suffer from the consequences of flooding, landslides and other related disasters causing death and displacement in most areas of the country.
Richard McColl - I am a freelance writer from deepest darkest London but for the past 10 years or so I have been maintaining my extended "writing break" in ...
