The agribusiness and environmental authorities began a prevention plan to take immediate measures with which the impact of climatic phenomena such as La Niña can be mitigated.
The memory of the floods that affected more than 30,000 hectares of sugar cane crops in the Cauca river valley between 2010 and 2011 is still fresh in the memory of the agro-industry.
For this reason, with a 60% probability of occurrence of a La Niña phenomenon in the last quarter of the year, the alarms were turned on again and today different entities have joined forces to promote a prevention plan with dates and tasks to be executed in the short term.
The plan includes reviewing the current status of flood protection works in the Cauca river valley, preparing a diagnosis and identifying actions and proposals for immediate intervention. Asocaña, the Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous Corporation (CVC), the Engineering and Infrastructure Group (IGEI), eleven sugar mills and Cenicaña are working on the plan.
To this end, six work teams were organized by zones (south-west, south-east, south-central, north-central, Brut, and north) that, in field visits, reviewed the current status of the flood protection works. Each group presented their proposals on June 30.
In addition, to ensure that the actions are immediate, the following was agreed:
- The intervention works may begin as soon as the technical teams approve them during the visits and the CVC will give priority to the development of the actions proposed in the diagnosis. For greater clarity on the execution and maintenance of the works, the CVC issued circular 0039 of July 13, 2016.
- The Corporation will review the possibility of engaging in maintenance work on banks and tributary channels that generate risk.
- The use of the information provided by the CVC's early warning system will be trained and promoted.
