BOGOTA (AlertNet) - Flooding and landslides caused by weeks of torrential rains have claimed the lives of 95 Colombians as the South American nation grapples with one of its worst rainy seasons in decades, the Red Cross said.
Heavy downpours, which began in September, have disrupted the lives of nearly 310,000 Colombians, destroyed swathes of farmland and around 400 homes, according to the latest report by the Colombian Red Cross.
Seven out of Colombia's 31 provinces are on high flood alert as water levels of major rivers continue to rise.
The death toll from the current rainy season is likely to surpass the numbers of Colombians killed during last year's heavy floods.
"In just two months, we have nearly reached the death toll during the previous rainy season that lasted 10 months," Cesar Uruena, head of relief operations at the Colombian Red Cross, told local press earlier this week.
Between January and October of 2010, 119 Colombians died during the rainy season. This year between September and November, 95 deaths have been reported, Uruena said.
The high death toll has renewed calls for local government authorities to implement better prevention measures and ensure families living in flood-prone areas are evacuated ahead of the annual rainy season.
"The trends are similar to the 2010 rainy season, indicating an urgent need to reinforce mitigation and risk management measures," states the latest report from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Colombia.
Local meteorologists warn that the heavy downpours, which are caused by colder ocean temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific known as the Nina phenomenon, are likely to last through to March next year.
LANDSLIDES
The central province of Caldas has been worst hit, with at least 48 people killed in one landslide in a residential neighbourhood in the provincial capital Manizales earlier this month.
Residents in the Cervantes neighbourhood of Manizales claim that local authorities neglected to prevent the lethal landslide following warnings by several locals about faulty water sewage systems.
Colombia's chief ombudsman and the attorney general's office have opened separate investigations to determine whether negligence by local government officials caused the disaster.
(Editing by Alex Whiting)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
