The recent landslide in the municipality of Rosas, Cauca, which closed the Pan-American Highway and, therefore, increased the prices of various food items alerted the authorities and citizens of other regions to the risks of the current rainy season.
To date there are seven departments at risk of landslides and, as reported by ideas, 259 municipalities are at risk of landslides, four of them are on red alert. A fact that is not surprising as data from the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management shows that there were 89 mass agitations in January alone, which corresponded to 56% of the total incidents reported across the country.
If analyzed by region, the southern departments are precisely where four municipalities are on red alert, El Tambo and López in Cauca; in Nariño, Policarpa; and Tolima, in Ibagué.
While the other 22 are at medium risk, Antioquia has three municipalities, which are Dabiba, Frontino and Vigia del Fuerte; Among the caldas are Marquetalia, Pennsylvania, Samaná and Victoria; in Cauca, La Vega and Rojas; Choco, Bajo Baudo (Pizarro), Bojaya (Bellavista), Isthmina; Cundinamarca, Anolima, Fusgasuga; Huila, Giant, Nieva, Pital, Pitalito, Rivera; and Putumayo, Mocoa, San Francisco, Santiago. The remaining 233 are on low alert.
Luis Alfonso López Álvarez, head of the Ideum Forecast and Alert Service Office, explained that these effects are very relative and linked to various factors such as soil moisture, area type and rainfall.
“The issue of impacts is very relative, but we can say that, due to the danger of landslides, associated with the rainy conditions and the instability of the terrain, the most affected departments have been Choco, Valle del Cauca, Cauca, Nariño, Antioquia, Santander , Norte de Santander, Cundinamarca, Tolima, Boyaca, Caldas, Risaralda, Huila and Meta”.
