Ecobreves – COLOMBIA: Dredging to Prevent Floods

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

BOGOTA, Aug 26 2006 (IPS) - – Authorities from the town of Montería, in the northern Colombian department of Córdoba, will begin dredging and rehabilitation work in September on La Caimanera channel. The initiative is part of a 4.2 million-dollar project to mitigate the effects of flooding from the Sinú River, which in 2005 left more than 3,000 families homeless.

The secretary of municipal infrastructure, Juan Carlos Méndez, told Tierramérica that the last legal steps are being carried out to begin work, which includes reforestation of both banks of the channel.

According to Carlos Martínez, of the Farmers' Association of Córdoba, the efforts begun in 2005 have produced immediate results.