All Colombia’s departments are on high alert with the aim of preventing damage and dealing with the coming rainy season, said President Juan Manuel Santos on Sunday.
“All sectors of the government are on alert in the face of future damage, said President Santos. The Head of State clarified that the La Niña phenomenon is not returning, but a cyclical, stronger than normal rainy season. “What is coming is not another Niña but a regular rainy season with the aggravating factor of it being stronger than normal,” he said.
The president added that in parts of the country soils still have not dried out, many municipalities are still inundated, the mountains are still wet. “The [rainy] season that is coming will rain on wet [ground].”
In preparation for the coming rains “more than 3,000 works have been carried out throughout the country and resources are arriving in the regions.”
The country’s last rainy season, which lasted from March 2010 until early this year, cost the lives of 300 people and left some 2.3 million Colombians affected.