Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Once Parched, Now Flooded

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

CARACAS, May 1 2004 (IPS) - Yearned for during months of intense drought, Venezuela's rainy season, which normally lasts from May to October, has arrived — and in a most frightening way. A six-month-old girl and a 32-year-old man drowned in the flooding of the Guaire River in Caracas, and dozens of families lost their homes. Emergency workers have evacuated 50 homes in the eastern district of the capital.

In the southwest region bordering Colombian and to the south of Lake Maracaibo, villages and roads have been inundated.

The destruction of the forests “and the insufficiency of rainfall drainage systems in places where illegal construction is on the rise, means that sediment is deposited along roadways and access is blocked,” says Jorge Molina, head of the disaster management department for the metropolitan fire department.

“We lose count of the number of three or four story homes built in inappropriate places. Urban growth keeps expanding and doesn't respect the environmental parameters,” he said.