News Americas, BOGOTA, Colombia, Fri. Oct. 27, 2018: An overnight landslide caused by heavy rains this week, killed 11 people, including four children, in the central Colombian town of Barrancabermeja in the northeastern part of the country.
For the last three weeks, Colombia has been facing its second rainy season of the year that has left thirty out of the country’s 32 departments on high alert due to the heavy rainfall.
Houses built from wood and cans on an eroded mountain in Barrancabermeja, a city in the department of Santander, were devoured by the avalanche of land during the slide.
“This is unfortunate, this is a catastrophe and it is unfortunate. We have the rain conditions for two years which have not stopped,” said Didier Alberto Tavera, Governor of the Department of Santander. “And it is unfortunate for these families here, who are in a condition of vulnerability. These are human settlements and, therefore, we hope to start a program to improve the living conditions of these families.”
Vice-President of Colombia, Marta Lucia Ramirez, visited the scene on Monday and has been critical of how illegal developers have built and sold houses to people in sites that are not suitable for construction. She also added that some other 21 districts of Barrancabermeja are in similar conditions.
“This is largely the result of pirate developers. Here we ask the prosecutor to act with the utmost severity, because they tell us that the pirate developers have sold a lot of lots in places that are very high risk,” said Ramirez.
So far, more than 280,000 families have been affected and authorities have called for its citizens to pay attention to the alerts from the risk unit in order to avoid further tragedies. (SOURCE: CCTV)
