Torrential rains have plunged the Chocó region on Colombia’s Pacific coast into a major humanitarian crisis. Tens of thousands of families are severely affected. SWISSAID is launching an emergency relief effort.
Facts
Aims
To ensure food security for the population over the coming months, the project will distribute seeds and food parcels. A technical specialist provides on-site support for sowing and maintaining cultivated fields. He is also advising vanilla growers on how to resume production.
Emergency aid for the Chocó region in Colombia
Torrential rainfall has plunged the Chocó region on the Pacific coast of Colombia into a severe humanitarian crisis. Tens of thousands of families have been severely affected. SWISSAID is providing emergency aid.
The Colombian government has declared a national state of emergency due to massive flooding that has devastated the north-west of the country. The floods were caused by the overflow of the Valle River, which is fed by record rainfall in the mountainous regions of the country.
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Thousands of people in need
In all, more than 30,000 families across the region were affected, according to the Colombian authorities. Communities’ homes and infrastructure were destroyed, and their fields devastated. Crops of bananas, yucca, taro (root vegetables), corn, sugar cane and many others were all destroyed, leaving the inhabitants with no means of survival.
Emergency aid has been completed
The emergency aid not only made it possible to secure the acute nutrition of the most affected people, but also to guarantee food production for the coming months. Casiana Murillo, local councillor in the affected community of Rio Valle, reports on the devastating floods and how the community was supported by SWISSAID and local partners.
Impressions of the emergency aid
Facts & Figures
Food security
– Supplying 400 affected families with food parcels; especially the indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities
Food production
– Securing the farmers’ own food production by distributing local seeds for bananas, yucca and maize
– Accompaniment by a technical advisor for sowing and tending the farmers’ fields
Vanilla production
– Support for vanilla producers in restoring and maintaining their fields, including sowing new seeds
