COLOMBIA: After Forced Displacement by Conflict, Relocation by Landslide

• by Helda Martínez (ciudad bolivar, colombia)
• Thursday, May 13, 2010
• Inter Press Service

The effects of the leaks in the pipes carrying water to the more solidly built homes in the area were compounded by unexpected heavy rains that cut short a drought caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon, which was forecast to last until August.

Although April and May are generally two of the rainiest months in Bogotá, this year the record-breaking rainfall has left a death toll of 59 so far.

Three mudslides in the Ciudad Bolívar informal settlement in the hills on the southeast edge of the capital recently carried 1,300 cubic metres of earth down the hillsides, destroying five houses and burying Carlos Ávila, a 22-year-old soldier engaged in rescue work in the area.

Ciudad Bolívar is home to over one million of the close to 10 million people living in Bogotá. And an estimated 10 percent of the people in the district were displaced from their homes around the country by the nearly five-decade civil war.

According to the Consultancy for Human Rights and Displacement (CODHES), one of Colombia's most respected human rights groups, five million people have been forcibly displaced in Colombia over the last 25 years, including 2.4 million between 2002 and 2009.

The largest numbers of internally displaced persons have fled to Bogotá, the biggest city in the country, which offers greater opportunities to make a living and to seek safety in anonymity, blending in with the surrounding communities, according to CODHES.

Another factor that has drawn the displaced to Ciudad Bolívar is the solidarity among local residents.

The portions of Ciudad Bolívar that line the city's southern freeway have electricity, water, parks and shopping centres. But the farther up the hillsides you go, the more precarious the dwellings.

The streets are not paved, bus service to the area is limited, and from some neighbourhoods it takes two hours to get to central Bogotá.

At the highest point in the neighbourhood of Caracolí, up near the top of the hill, is the Santa Bibiana water tank, which supplies people in that area and an adjacent neighbourhood.

'The tank has a supply network with four-inch hoses that people break to get water,' Gerardo Rodríguez, a Ciudad Bolívar city government engineer, told IPS.

But the community places the blame for the leaks on the local government.

'The water company workers took away the hoses and put in water meters,' Rosalbina Muñoz, who has lived in Caracolí for seven years, commented to IPS. 'But they didn't fix the main pipes, and the leaks caused the mudslide.'

'Take a look just over there and you'll see the water gushing out,' said José Bulla, who has lived in the area for a decade. 'There's a huge jet of water, which is a huge waste.'

The DPAE, the agency that coordinates the city's disaster reduction and emergency response, is keeping a close eye on 70 at-risk spots in the district, while moving to relocate the families.

'It's preventive relocation,' said Rodríguez -- although it did not start until after the first mudslide.

'The first night, people (in the at-risk areas) were asked to find a place to stay with family members or friends, and they were given 120,000 pesos (60 dollars) to cover the initial costs' of having to move out of their houses, Viviana Boyacá, spokeswoman for the Ciudad Bolívar government, told IPS.

'The rest were given shelter in community centres and a sports complex,' she explained.

Rodríguez pointed out that 'none of the inhabitants of the area have title deeds. They have all bought their lots on the informal market.'

According to the procedure put in place by the DPAE in 2007 for such cases, people from the upper reaches of Caracolí are to be relocated with 'integral follow-up and support by the Secretariat of Social Integration,' Boyacá said.

That means their rental payments are to be covered for six months to a year, before they are assigned 'social housing' -- meaning small, poorly-built units.

The housing units are assigned by the Caja de Vivienda Popular, the government agency in charge of helping to meet low-income housing needs.

'I want to be moved, because every time it rains I feel like the mountain is going to come sliding down on me,' Alba Sánchez, who has lived in the area for seven years, remarked to IPS. Like her neighbours, she purchased her small lot from the so-called 'terreneros'.

'Some one shows up with some papers, says 'this lot is mine', sells it, and that's it,' said Bulla.

There are lots for sale next to Sánchez's home, at the bottom of the area covered by mud from a landslide. One six-by-12 square metre lot is going for five million pesos (2,500 dollars).

The minimum monthly salary in Colombia is 260 dollars. But few informal sector workers -- who represent a majority in Ciudad Bolívar -- earn that much.

'And if it's below the highway, the same lot costs four or five times that,' Muñoz pointed out.

The question is why people spend their scarce savings on hard-to-reach lots where the danger is imminent and electricity and water are hard to come by.

'Because in complex situations, amidst the pain over the violence suffered and other difficulties, people are vulnerable and buy what they shouldn't,' Aida Muñoz, assistant director of the city government's local operating centre, responded to IPS. 'They don't visualise the risks.'

The relocation of the families from Caracolí is set to be completed in June. But the displaced keep pouring in from around the country -- and lots and houses, many in at-risk areas, continue to be sold.

© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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