A. SITUATION ANALYSIS
Description of the Disaster
The sub-region of La Mojana is characterized by humid climatic conditions, as it is a territory that is home to multiple productive wetlands, belonging to the hydrographic basin known as the Momposina Depression, whose environmental function is to regulate the beds of the Magdalena, Cauca, and San Jorge rivers, buffer floods and facilitate the settlement and accumulation of their sediments, as well as to provide food security and generate economic income for the population.
On 27 August 2021, due to heavy rains in recent months in the sub-region of La Mojana (under the influence of the La Niña phenomenon), the dam on the left bank of the Cauca River broke near the Municipality of San Jacinto del Cauca, in Bolívar (Cara de Gato sector), causing flooding in the municipalities of this area of the country, affecting at least 165,895 people.
Since April 2022, the 11 municipalities of the sub-region of La Mojana have registered new damages due to the breakdowns in the dam along the sectors of Cara de Gato, Los Arrastres, Santillana, and Caño Viloria. Three of the four breaks remained open even until the first half of 2023, allowing large quantities of water to enter the municipalities.
The floods affected thousands of hectares of productive land, causing damage to people's living conditions and the loss of small and large-scale industrial agricultural crops, livestock, fish, and pig farming, among other livelihoods, on which the economic income and livelihoods of the region's population depend.
The Municipalities of Sucre and San Benito Abad were reported to be the most affected areas. Consequently, the Colombian Red Cross Society requested support through this IFRC-DREF Operation to assist the affected population in these two municipalities, during the first phase of the planned intervention, which started in July 2022.
On 01 September 2022, the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD, by its initials in Spanish), the governing body of the National Disaster Risk Management System in Colombia, through Circular 026, warned about an increase in rains and dangerous events derived from them in the second half of the year and provided guidelines for preparedness and readiness for the Second Rainy Season of 2022 under the influence of the La Niña phenomenon.
Later in the same month, on 21 September 2022, the Colombian Red Cross Society participated in the Disaster Management Committee convened by the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management together with other entities that make up the system, including the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (DEAM, by its initials in Spanish), the Regional Autonomous Corporations, Firefighters, Civil Defence, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Transport, and the Armed Forces. The Committee reviewed the situation and determined the continuity of the emergency because of the influence of the La Niña phenomenon. Also, socialized the National Response Plan for the second rainy season, to generate an articulated response by its members to the flood alert and increased rainfall throughout the national territory.
As anticipated at the meeting, the second rainy season in 2022 was stronger, converting the rise in the level of the Cauca and San Jorge rivers into a threat to the communities of the sub-region of La Mojana, already vulnerable to flooding caused by the Cara de Gato breakage. This, added to the limited capacity of the local authorities to deal with the emergency response to this phenomenon, led to the need to include the municipalities of San Marcos, Guaranda, Majagual, and Caimito, in the Department of Sucre, in a second phase of the IFRC-DREF Operation.
On 01 November 2022, the National Government, through Decree No. 2113, declared a national disaster situation, due to the fact that between 1 August 2021 and 28 October 2022, 21 of the 32 departments of the country, and 390 municipalities, had declared a state of public calamity, under Law 1523 of 2012, by which the National Disaster Risk Management Policy is adopted, and the National Disaster Risk Management System is established.
In line with the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM) forecasts, this rainy season under the influence of the La Niña phenomenon extended until January 2023, so the Caribbean region, where the La Mojana sub-region is located, continued to be affected, which meant an increase in river levels and flows above the average values for the season. As expected, this resulted in flows that exceeded the rainfall values recorded in 2010-2011, when the country recorded one of the heaviest rainy seasons in history, which generated several emergencies linked to flooding throughout the national territory.
As part of the scope of the technical extension of the IFRC-DREF, the departments of Magdalena and Bolivar also benefited from this intervention, considering that, as of 9 November 2022, and according to a UNGRD statement, more than 95 emergencies had been reported in Cartagena, capital of the municipality of Bolivar, specifically in the area of La Boquilla and Cerro de La Popa, which resulted in more than 15,000 people being affected, who were also exposed to landslide risks. Meanwhile, the Advisory Office for Disaster Risk Management (OAGRD) reported that, during the second week of November 2022, heavy rains caused 14 landslides, 2 house collapses, and 3 fallen trees.
According to the Colombian Ombudsman's Office, by January 2023, the rain and flood season caused at least 500,000 people affected; more than 3,000 homes were damaged, and another 500 homes were destroyed; 10 vehicle bridges and 6 pedestrian bridges were affected; 7 health centres damaged; 9 aqueducts and 72 educational centres damaged or destroyed. In addition, 47,000 hectares of crops, 6,757 cattle, 6,803 pigs, more than 40,000 poultry, and 301 aquaculture ponds were lost