President Gustavo Petro declared yesterday the situation of disaster in the country due to the rainy season that reaches lThe highest levels in 40 years and leaves 203 dead so far in 2022.
(Read: Bill for rains: 70,000 houses and 2,000 roads affected).
“Yesterday at a meeting of the National Risk Council we decided to declare a disaster in the country. It is not called natural because it is not a natural disaster, it is the combination of the ‘La Niña’ phenomenon, deepened by the climate crisis”Petro said at the Catam military airport before leaving for Caracas, where he met with his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolás Maduro.
According to figures released by the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (Ungrd), the rains They leave at least 203 people dead, 281 injured and more than 450,000 homeless in the last 10 months.
In addition, according to the president, who on Friday of last week had already anticipated that he would declare the situation a ‘disaster’, there is a “54% chance that (the downpours) will be prolonged” andn the first months of the year 2023.
According to official figures, the rains have also destroyed 4,387 houses and another 69,953 houses were damagedwhile 2,110 road sections, 233 vehicular bridges, 111 pedestrian bridges, 305 aqueducts, 84 sewers, 19 health centers, 235 educational centers and 46 community centers have been affected.
(Also: Rains would stop the delivery of 4G routes for up to eight months, according to the ANI).
There is an increase in hunger
These damages have caused an “increase in hunger” that has motivated the declaration of a disaster, in the words of Petro, which means that it will be possible to “add a series of unused items” to the prevention and management of the rains whose “money is going to be invested in the problems of hunger and the problems of contingency”.
The Government provides a subsidy, “a transfer to mothers who are heads of households and mothers of children in early childhood with an amount per person of $500,000, that is, to overcome the poverty line” with the objective that “the early childhood in the weakest phase”.
The other points that will allow the declaration of disaster by the national government will be “a change in the form of hiring” that will allow the executive to hire popular organizations, including the Community Action Boards (JAC), to “popular pots to ensure that anyone who has this need can have a food service.”
In the same way, the School Feeding Program (PAE) will be expanded so that it extends during the vacation period and cover 100% of boys and girls and road communication will be improved in areas where bridges and roads have fallen to guarantee “mobility”.
(See: Due to the rains, food prices would increase).
Finally, President Gustavo Petro also announced that a subsidy will be created 100 percent of the fertilizers used for food production” in order to lower the cost of food.
BRIEFCASE
