More than 5,000 families have been affected by the rains in Colombia

IDEAM revealed that the first rainy season will continue until mid-June and the heaviest rain stages will be seen in April and May. Heavy rainfall has affected several populations in the country and according to the National Unit for Risk Management, between March 16 and April 18, rains have generated 276 events such as landslides, floods or sudden increases.

These phenomena have affected 19 departments, especially Cundinamarca, Antioquia, Cauca, Tolima, Nariño and the Coffee Region.

The agency assured that the phenomenon of rains has affected 5,177 families, 28 people have died, 45 have been injured and one is missing, in addition, 107 homes have been completely destroyed.

Throughout the season, a variety of events have been recorded, but mass movements, floods and sudden increases are the most recorded, adding up to 232 events. Also, gales and storms, torrential avenues and hailstorms have already been reported.

In large infrastructures, damage is reported on 335 roads in the country, as well as 34 vehicular and four pedestrian bridges. Also damage to 39 aqueducts, 14 sewers and 17 educational institutions.

In Nariño, according to the Department's Administrative Directorate of Risk Management, different regions continue to be on alert for heavy rains that continue to cause landslides, damage to roads, aqueducts and river overflows. Under the coordination of the Government of Nariño, the entities of the National Risk Management System continue to respond to the emergencies presented.

Jade Gaviria, administrative director of Disaster Risk Management, indicated that, “as a result of the rains that continue to fall in western Nariño, the municipality of Ancuya was again held incommunicado due to landslides generated on the access roads to it.”

Likewise, through the Department's Infrastructure Secretariat, it was reported that despite the inter-institutional effort made in recent days to enable the roads to Ancuya, heavy rains this weekend generated landslides, which at this time leave the communities of this municipality incommunicado.

In Puerto Wilches, Santander, in the sector known as Sitio Nuevo, there was an overflow of the Magdalena River, which has affected communities in the area. Departmental and municipal authorities managed to UNGRD 3,000 hours of machinery with which work will be carried out in the affected area of the jarillón.

Thunderstorms, hailstorms and gales are expected throughout this week, accompanying the increase in rainfall that will be presented according to the forecasts issued by IDEAM, in much of the country, and with the Pacific being the region with the highest rainfall.

The technical entity pointed out that rainfall, which can be moderate to heavy, will be stronger until next Thursday, when they can gradually decrease without this meaning the absence of precipitation for the date, since the country continues to go through the first rainy season of the year, which will go until mid-June.

Given this scenario, and taking into account that it has been more than a month since the first rainy season of 2022 officially began, the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management -UNGRD- maintains its call to all the authorities of the national territory to strengthen the surveillance, monitoring and control of the different phenomena threatening that may arise because of the rains.

“IDEAM has made an important appeal to us this week to activate alerts even more in our country. It's been a month of constant rains. During Easter, it did not stop raining, on the contrary, rainfall increased and generated a wide variety of events in the country. We have soils saturated with water, rivers with high levels and we still have two more months of rain left. Although we have reinforced preventive and risk mitigation actions, we must continue this task, making use of yellow tools and machinery to clean canals and rivers, to remove material that obstructs roads. Implement risk management plans with communities, have Early Warning Systems active and following recommendations that help us save lives. Let's not let our guard down and stay alert,” said the director of UNGRD, Eduardo José González.

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