President Juan Manuel Santos announced that the Colombian government will allot approximately $14 billion (COP 26 trillion) to assist victims of this year’s extreme weather as part of the newly approved National Development Plan, the president’s office reported Friday.
Santos noted the approval of the plan by Congress Thursday, stating, “I would like to highlight, within the plan approved by Congress, that in the four-year period nearly 26 trillion pesos will be allotted for attention to the winter flooding and adaptation of the country to the change in climate.”
He said that out of this amount, $678 million (COP 1.2 trillion) will be destined for emergency humanitarian assistance, slightly over $3 billion (COP 5.4 trillion) for rehabilitation work and more than $10 billion (COP 19 trillion) for risk prevention and mitigation, to prepare the country to face similar phenomenons in the future.
“We are the country third most vulnerable to the changing climate,” said Santos, in regard to the need to prepare for future weather patterns.