This Monday, the United Nations (UN) published a report in which it assured that women and children are the populations most affected by the effects of climate change in Colombia.
The document, entitled The Key to Climate Action and Sustainable Peace? Full and equal participation of women, the UN news portal collected the testimony of activist Fatima Muriel, president of the Weavers of Life Alliance Organization. There, she recounted part of the drama she experienced during the Mocoa tragedy (Putumayo), during the night of March 31 and the early morning of April 1, 2017.
Heavy rains caused the Mocoa, Mulato and Sangoyaco rivers to overflow, causing mudflows and landslides that wiped out hundreds of people, homes, bridges and vehicles. According to the authorities' report, the final balance was 333 deaths, 76 disappeared and 22,310 victims.
Although this region, located in the south of the Colombian Andes, is known for its constant rains, that time the municipality of Mocoa received, in one night, one third of the amount of water that falls in a month. According to Muriel, at least “90% of the victims were women”.
“It happened on a Friday, which is when all the men go out to party and the women stay at home taking care of the grandmother, the children and taking care of everyone. We found some women even with two children strapped in their bodies there drowned, that was disastrous. [...] It hurt me a lot to have to dig mass graves to bury 3- and 4-year-olds, not counting those who survived the avalanche, but couldn't find their homes again and got lost.” said the activist.
While the authorities have viewed the tragedy as a “natural disaster” fueled by climate change, academic experts and activists say that other factors, including deforestation in the mountains, could have contributed to the crude outcome. “Putumayo is in the middle of two great mountains. When they dig into those mountains, oil and mining companies, what they do is destabilize them and that causes rivers to overflow when it rains,” Fatima denounced.
The report mentions other aspects of climate change that increase the vulnerability of both children and women. One example is the armed conflict, since many of the victims are forced to move to other rural areas of the country. In these spaces, as detailed in the document, they do not have the possibility of access to drinking water:
“They have found a home on the banks of the river because that way they don't have to pay for water. Water is life for them and their families, so they fight to make it clean and unpolluted by big companies. If you add to this the floods caused by climate change, this means that these women are being affected up to three times,” said Muriel.
Natalia Daza, who works for the Colombian NGO DeJusticia, said that changes in climate conditions also have a direct impact on soil conditions, “either due to changes in precipitation or increased temperature extremes.” These aspects make young people “more likely to be recruited into armed groups because of lack of opportunities and hunger”.
Education is not alien to this problem either. The UN emphasized that, when natural disasters occur, minors, especially girls, are much more likely to not return to their schools.
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