Due to the heavy rains, the entrance to the municipality of Colombia, Huila, is restricted; The road for 7 sidewalks was also affected. Councilors of the municipality demand that the Government “pay more attention to the situation”, because according to them, it is a “tragedy that can be seen coming.”
María Alejandra Ruiz Mallungo
@amperiodista
“What is happening here in the municipality of Colombia, Huila, is like the story of ‘a death foretold’”, is what the councilor of the municipality of Colombia, Fabián Alexander González, calls the critical situation of access through the main road to the municipality. .
Rural roads were also seriously affected by the rains last Sunday.
“We can’t let it fall.”
The municipality of Colombia, located in the north of Huila, suffered serious landslides and sudden floods that caused the inability of access roads to the town and in rural areas.
The sudden flood caused by the La Legiosa stream caused permanent undermining of the Santana Bridge, according to councilor Alexander González. “We have been presenting the problem since December 27, 2023,” since, since then, it has been seen as the bankruptcy in each flood, “taking away part of the bank.”
This bridge is of utmost importance, as it is part of an important project that is to link Colombia with La Uribe, in Meta. “The La Legiosa bridge (Santana) is located 50 minutes from the urban area of the municipality of Colombia on the road that goes to El Dorado, also called La Macarena road, which is in the project to link Colombia with La Uribe, Meta ”González pointed out.
On the same bridge, councilor José Alirio Ospina, states that “it is a relatively new work” and despite the requests and “proposals” that have been put before the Government of Huila, since the beginning of the rains, for them to intervene early the damage that the ravine has constantly caused and does not become worse, “the authorities have not paid enough attention to the problem.”
Lobbyist Ospina argued that it is “a bridge that cannot be dropped” because the cost of its repair would be double what its construction cost, which was approximately 3,000 million pesos.
‘It affects us all’
The inability to pass through this important rural route has affected the farmers of almost 7 villages who travel every day to their place of work or to take food from the countryside to sell to the municipality and the boys and girls who must go to study.
“We are all really harming ourselves, both the people and the children who study, because there is a car that makes the journey from the Las Lajas village to take the children to the center of the educational institution, La Legiosa and to the part of The Golden. So because there is no passage there for vehicles, those children cannot attend classes, or they have to walk for more than an hour, because there is no car access.”
‘This was seen coming’
The most worrying and notable situation left by the rains for the inhabitants of the municipality of Colombia was the inability to pass the main entrance and exit road to the town, since the flood caused by the Ambicá River took away a large part of the highway bench at kilometer 1, Colombia-Neiva road.
It is a bridge that cannot be dropped, since the cost of its repair would be double what its construction cost.
According to the preliminary report carried out by the Huila Risk and Disaster Management Unit, in the area there is “Department machinery on site (working) to divert the river.” From the Municipal Council of Colombia, they respond that: “We, several times, have been making the request that they divert the river or, if not, make some ‘gabions’, because what is happening, we already saw it coming as soon as the floods began. winter days”.
Finally, Councilor González stated that this “is a problem, because every time the river rises, it begins to take away part of the road bank, which today leaves us incommunicado, there is no passage or access anywhere, So really, we are affected” and they fear that, with the La Niña phenomenon, a much greater tragedy could be caused.
Mobility to the sector
Given these requests from the councilors, the Departmental Roads and Infrastructure Secretariat commented to LA NACIÓN at the close of this edition: “Given the serious road crisis in the municipality of Colombia, caused by the recent rains, the secretary Andrés Camilo Cabrera Leiva, directed the movement of machinery to that town in the north of Huila, with which it was possible to remove landslides that allowed mobility to be restored in the sector.”
