Bogotá, January 20.- The Colombian authorities continue today to deal with the emergency caused by a landslide in the municipality of Rosas, department of Cauca.
According to the conclusions of the unified command post, held this Thursday and chaired by the Director General of the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management, Javier Pava, and Deputy Minister with Presidential functions, Gloria Ramírez, the most important thing is progress in the commitment to buy land and affected families to relocate.
It is an issue to which we are fully dedicated so that we can provide a short-term response to the communities that are in shelters, Pava assured.
He indicated that the national government will increase support for rent subsidies for affected communities in that area of the country.
At the meeting, they indicated that there are eight possible plots of land for resettlement, but it will be the affected communities who will agree if the government buys these lands.
For her part, the Deputy Minister with Presidential functions described as positive the response to the emergency presented in Rosas by both local and national authorities.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro, while visiting the site in the municipality of Rosas, Cauca department, where a landslide occurred, confirmed that his government would buy land for the victims.
He assured that they have planned a place of very fertile land to relocate the affected families, an area that “could be the beginning of a large farming area that would even help alleviate the social pressures that exist in northern Cauca reigns”.
This rural area will have an urban infrastructure that will include a school and a health center and will be close to markets for the products produced, the ruler explained.
The President warned that the rainy season will continue and is forecast to last until June 2023.
Last year’s rains in Colombia have left one million homeless and more than 700 deaths so far.
Twelve days ago, a landslide in the above Colombian community devastated four villages, affected 15 corregimientos and buried 800 meters of the Panamericana. (Text and photo: PL)