The municipal mayor assures that they notified the departmental and national entities.
Three hundred families in Mahates, Bolívar, are experiencing a serious emergency due to flooding in the municipality and its surroundings.
The community denounces apparent lack of management by the authorities, Meanwhile, the municipal mayor attributes the situation to the failure to carry out works on the Canal del Dique that were scheduled for the beginning of 2025.
It is known that there are three neighborhoods as the main ones with flood levels, El Puente neighborhood, La Vera and Chino. Likewise, The report from the authorities mentions the surrounding sectors such as the town of San Joaquín and to the areas that connect Mahates with other parts of the department such as San Francisco.
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As for the community, Sofía Agámez spoke as a spokesperson for the more than 300 families affected and explained that what appears today would be the consequence of apparently poorly intervened works.
“They have intervened on this stream on several occasions, but they have done a poor job.. The stream needs channeling, because they did a job, they did it badly. What this work did was affect the community more than anything, and today the stream, every time it rains up there from where the stream begins, tries to find its way out.”
He went on to add: “so, since he is too terrified because he has too much dirt at the bottom, what he looks for is the best way and it is the way to always overflow.”
The woman reported that Approximately a year ago, emergencies like this did not occur. Sofía Agámez also assured that the municipal mayor’s office would not be providing aid or managing actions that would really help the inhabitants at this time:
“What the mayor told us, well, through social networks, because they were not even able to send the competent authority for the help that we needed, neither yesterday nor today have they come here for the victims. What he said was that as long as the Dam Canal was at its high level, they couldn’t do anything,” he said.
“So, it’s not about not being able to do anything while the Dam is overgrown, but about finding a solution, removing a little more of the land that has been left in the stream so that this does not continue to affect it,” he said.
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For his part, the mayor of Mahates, Agustín Palomino, responded by mentioning and reminding that its location near the Canal del Dique is the main cause of the events, but that government entities are already aware of the situation.
“Cardique had already made some inspection visits, in order to do the design of what is going to be implemented for this stream, but unfortunately the rains came and well, it has resulted in this impact on the municipal seat.”
He added: “The stability of the work and its quality has been analyzed or evaluated rather by these two precipitations and as of today, with yellow machinery, we have eliminated all the waste that I know is coming and we have already restarted the actions so that this important work can continue.”
The municipal leader assured that The Government Secretariat carries out visits to the most affected sectors to address the situation and that the Government of Bolívar is already aware of the issue; However, they assured that they are taking the corresponding actions to request that Cardique carry out an intervention sooner than planned that, according to the mayor, could channel the waters that are generating this crisis today.
Source: Integrated Information System
