The climate emergency challenges the State's ability to contain a wave of extreme phenomena

The science of accurately predicting a forest fire, hurricane, flood or earthquake has never been an easy task.

And yet, the phenomena are becoming more frequent and more lethal.

So far in January in Colombia there has been climatic damage in the Eastern Hills of Bogotá, on the Quibdó-Medellín highway, the Cauca Valley or the Amazon.

To confront them, the country has an advanced and complete National Risk Management Plan.

However, experts such as international consultant Jair Torres consider that its understanding and execution is still very partial.

The images of the firefighters in the hills of Bogotá, or of the rescue teams in the collapse in Chocó, leave the impression that in the face of misfortune and the “divine wrath” of nature, the only thing left is the rapid management of the authorities.

It is, however, the last link in a detailed legislation that involves local, departmental and national authorities and whose lighthouse and guide is the anticipation of disasters.

Omar Darío Cardona directed the Risk Management Unit (UNGRD) between 1992 and 1995. He says that in the international scientific circles dedicated to these issues, the country enjoys a certain prestige for its “legislation and conceptual framework, based not on addressing emergencies, but precisely in anticipating.”

Since tragedies such as the Popayán earthquake (1983) or the Armero avalanche (1985), Colombia has been slowly simmering regulations for the protection of a country full of limitations such as “poverty, marginality, towns and cities without “appropriate urban development, with neighborhoods in high-risk areas,” among other problems, Cardona lists.

He exposes it to unravel the complexity that forms an amalgamation of physical, natural phenomena and human accidents.

That is why environmental law expert Gustavo Wilches-Chaux points out that the risk management plan in Colombia involves “looking at all the factors, anticipating all the threats that may generate vulnerabilities to prevent them from becoming a disaster as much as possible.”

And he adds: “There is a definition that I really like and that is that a disaster is a poorly managed risk.”

Colombians are not, on paper, defenseless against the lurches of nature, which in the words of Wilches-Chaux is exercising a relentless audit against so many decades of attacks and human disrespect.

But this protocol, which includes three levels, according to Law 1523, is insufficient given the ineffectiveness and lack of professionalism of certain officials, the lack of continuity in its application and the disarticulation between national, departmental and local entities.

The theory indicates that the first step in the process is to know in detail the level of risk or environmental vulnerability.

The second is the reduction of this risk through, for example, infrastructure works, neighborhood protection or the construction of dams against flooding.

The last link, clearly the most visible, is the emergency response.

It is the point where firefighters, civil protection, the military or health teams appear.

The complete task must be orchestrated by the INGRD, but its execution is the responsibility of the departmental, municipal and National Government levels.

Territorial Planning Plans in cities, in fact, are a vital first field for mayors and councils to design cities with appropriate areas, environmental, economic and social conditions without dangers or risks.

Jair Torres, who has been a UN consultant, adds that the approach must better integrate the situation on the islands and coasts: “With all the efforts that have been made in Colombia in risk management, we are still thinking of a country continental.

The plans have a design for the Andean country and not one for islands.

That is why what happened with Hurricane Julia (2022) in San Andrés generated so many problems.”

Cardona adds his concerns: “What did the Government do if it knew that there was an El Niño phenomenon?

It was scientifically announced.

They didn't prepare anyone or manage anyone.

That is why the response is remedial when we are already in the announced crisis.”

Added to all of the above is the appointment of officials without the appropriate academic or work profile.

Suffice it to cite the case of the current general director of the UNGRD, Olmedo López Martínez, a career politician temporarily suspended until the end of January by the Attorney General's Office for his “negligent and careless” management in the reconstruction of Mocoa (Putumayo) and Piojó (Atlántico). .

“It is a political issue.

Bureaucratic,” says Omar Darío Cardona without a shadow of a doubt, “in Colombia there are specialists who have spent their lives studying these things.

But the Management Unit today is in the hands of totally incompetent people.

From a technical point of view, it is a lack of respect for science.”

It is of little use, observers agree, to have well-structured legislation if the approach of politicians and the promotion of public policies on issues of sustainability, development or management are poorly managed.

From all of the above only rumors arise about cases of corruption and corporations nourished by bureaucratic tokens that protect budgets as partisan loot.

Citizens and the media are wondering: how could an issue that has been marginalized for so long be resolved?

Experts respond that it is time to carefully review existing plans: “There must be more political commitment,” concludes Wilches-Chaux, “there must be better communication between the different levels of the State.

Disasters avoided are a good indicator of development.

We have to stop understanding risk management as the

airbag

that inflates to protect the driver at the time of a crash!”

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