Hundreds of thousands of people are without electricity on Colombia’s Caribbean coast after strong river currents leaves a vulnerable gas pipeline exposed.
There are also severe shortages of gas and water in the seven affected departments, with only 20% of normal supplies available.
The country’s Mining and Energy Minister Mauricio Cardenas said that the situation was very delicate; a rationing system had been imposed but he was unable to say how long it would last.
He said, “The [Magdalena] river current has left a 100m segment [of the pipeline] exposed; this makes it vulnerable to breakages, so we made the decision to shut off the flow of gas. This gas supplies the plants which generate electricity.”