President Petro declared the situation of disaster in Colombia due to heavy rains

President Gustavo Petro declared, on the night of this Sunday, November 10, the disaster situation throughout the country due to the heavy rains of recent days. The rainfall has caused floods, overflows and landslides that affect 27 of the 32 Colombian departments and nearly 46,000 families.

(See: The different ways in which climate change is a health threat).

“Due to what is happening these days, a disaster situation is declared throughout the country due to climate variability, generating unpredictable and unusual impacts, increasing vulnerability in the territories.“, indicated the president in a press conference after an emergency committee – Unified Command Post (PMU) -.

This declaration will be for the entire country, but lEfforts will focus on three areas “on a much larger scale“, in the words of Petro, who indicated that they are in the north of the department of La Guajira, throughout the department of Chocó and in Bogotá “due to shortage of drinking water“.

“What such a declaration does is that we can, based on the decree, transfer the nation’s budget resources today to other entities that have nothing to do with this type of attention to the regions that are being climatic victims of the current situation.“, explained Petro, who added that The rainy season will last throughout the month of December.

The president added that the climate vulnerability in Colombia “It has been worsening due to impacts that have to do with deforestation, illicit economies and, in the case of Bogotá, in my opinion, due to uncontrolled urbanization of the Bogotá Savannah.“.

(See: The most affected areas of the country due to the heavy rains of recent days).

Affectations

The heavy rains that have fallen in recent days in Colombia have caused havoc in several regions of the country, with effects in a total of 27 of the 32 departments that include floods, overflows in rivers and streams, and landslides that affect 46,000 families.

(See: The Government’s plan to address the emergency due to heavy rains in Chocó).

“In the consolidated we are talking about 186 municipalities in 27 departments, with 467 registered events and close to 46,000 families could be affected“he explained this Sunday in a press conference the director of the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD), Carlos Carrillo.

The department of Chocó is the most affected at the moment, with 22 municipalities affected and more than 30,000 affected families. according to preliminary figures offered by Carrillo, who indicated that at the moment there are no victims or missing persons.

The departmental risk management committee of Chocó declared a public calamity after the serious damage in the region.

For its part, in the department of Santander the rise of The Las Cruces ravine caused damage in the municipalities of San Vicente de Chucurí, leaving one person dead and two missing, according to information shared by local media.

(See: Petro will not go to COP29: he suspended his trip to Azerbaijan due to ‘climate collapse’).

In Bogota There were also damages in recent days, with flooding on the highway entering the capital due to heavy rainfall, as well as in the department of La Guajira, with more than 10,000 families affected by floods.

EFE