Since April 2010, Colombia’s relentless rainy season has claimed the lives of 452 people, with some 3.4 million affected across the country, El Espectador reported Thursday.
A landslide in the northcentral department of Santander caused the latest fatality on Wednesday, with a further 11 wounded and ten missing.
It means that 1,030 out of the total 1,120 municipalities throughout Colombia have been adversely affected, covering 29 of the 32 Colombian departments.
The devastating rains have flooded some three million acres of crops, while destroying dozens of roads, bridges, aqueducts, schools and other public buildings.
Thousands of cattles and an estimated half a million poultry have also perished in what has been over a year of almost unceasing rainy season conditions.
IDEAM, the country’s national meteorological institute, has forecast that the rains will continue until around mid-June, at which point the government will have a short window with which to put in place effective defense mechanisms and reconstruction projects before the rainy season returns.