“They are waiting for the situation to worsen”: flood victims in Puerto Wilches

For a week now, the municipality of Puerto Wilches in Norte de Santander has been slowly flooding. The warnings began last Tuesday, April 5, when inhabitants of the Vuelta Perico sector denounced the break in the dam containing the waters of the Magdalena River.

The most affected populations so far are those that are accentuated in the Vuelta Perico sector, in the district of Sitio Nuevo, and in the urban area of Puerto de Wilches. Despite the alerts that citizens have made through social networks and state institutions, the aid has not arrived.

“We have lost the banana and cassava crop, as well as cattle and chickens. So far we have not had help from the Santander government or the mayor's office of Puerto Wilches,” said Enrique Noguera, who was injured by the events, in an interview with Blu Radio.

For its part, the Fire Department of the municipality of Norte de Santander confirmed that so far more than 450 families have been affected by the floods in six neighborhoods. The commander of the firefighters, Darismel Oliveros, said that water had reached the town and flooded homes, farms and palm crops.

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“In the Bellavista neighborhood there are already 270 flooded, in the Torcoroma neighborhood there are 70, in the Unidos there are 52, in the Embankment 31 and that adds up to 423 families affected. Water has been put into their homes and we are dealing with those situations,” said the commander of the fire department.

In his interview with the media on Tuesday, April 12, the representative of the people affected referred to the problems that exist in his community and the work being done by the authorities.” The dam broke about 20 days ago, that jet was predicted that it would have to be covered, they arrived with a machine and they were they took Vijagual (Norte de Santander), instead of working here,” said an indignant Noguera.

Samuel Cardenas is another one of those affected by the heavy rains. “We ask the national government for help, I don't know if they are waiting for the emergency to escalate. They come when you can no longer work, who is going to stop there to cover that passage of water when it is a very big stream?” , asked about the overflow of the Magdalena River in the Vuelta Perico sector.

The Risk Management of the municipality has reported that the execution of the work to cover the dam vase is 95% of the process. “At the moment we have several flooded villages in the rural sector of the oil district, for example in la candelaria, Caño Rasquiñas, los Ñeques, these families have lost their enceres,” said Adith Romero, deputy director of the entity in Barrancabermeja.

The same institutional office assured that to counteract the water caused by the damage, big bags, concrete hexapods and pipe jacking have been installed to contain the emergency caused by the La Niña phenomenon.

On the other hand, the representative of Puerto Wilches, Rafael Centeno, stressed that the aid has taken a long time to arrive and the responses from the authorities are not clear and timely. “It is high time for an intervention because we showed during the visit that children and older adults have skin and digestive problems due to the conditions,” said the municipal official.

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