The forecast shows the start of this climatic event between May-July and its maturity phase for the rest of 2023.
According to the information provided by Ideam through a special statement, the Regional Autonomous Corporation of Cauca CRC urges mayors, municipal disaster risk management councils, the Departmental Disaster Risk Management Council, the media, unions of production, public service companies, relief agencies and the community in general, to take preparation and enlistment actions, given a high probability of the development of the “El Niño” phenomenon for the second semester of 2023.
On this, the statement states that the medium-range forecast shows probabilities of the beginning and development of the “El Niño” phenomenon with a value of 62% in the May-July period, and that it persists in its maturity phase for the rest of 2023, with probabilities greater than 80%.
The Ideam recommends don’t let your guard down to the possible occurrence and spread of fires in the vegetation cover, to the rise in temperatures during the day, extreme wind events and possible drops in temperatures in the early morning hours.
In this way, the Regional Autonomous Corporation of Cauca CRC recommends the following actions to the community in light of the prevailing weather conditions:
•Secure the roof, tiles and zinc sheets very well and in general the objects that could be dragged by the force of intense winds, associated with gales.
•Do not divert or block pipes or drains.
•Avoid the spread of rumors and speculation, go directly to official sources.
• Give notice to the competent entities of conditions that represent risk and threat to the community.
•The traditional practice of burning to prepare farmland generates the largest number of cases of forest fires in the department of Cauca; refrain from doing this practice, not only because of the connection to forest fires, but mainly because it has been shown to cause loss of soil fertility. It is a practice that must be eliminated from the collective imagination of the rural population.
Provoking a forest fire not only carries environmental sanctions, the Colombian penal code classifies it as a crime, in this sense, article 350 of law 599 of 2000 states that: (…) Whoever sets fire to a movable thing with common danger, will incur a prison term of sixteen (16) to one hundred forty-four (144) months and a fine of thirteen points thirty-three (13.33) to one hundred and fifty (150) legal monthly minimum wages in force. If the conduct is carried out in a property or in an object of scientific, historical, cultural, artistic interest or in good for public use or social utility, the prison term will be from thirty-two (32) to one hundred and eighty (180) months and a fine of one hundred thirty-three points thirty-three (133.33) to seven hundred fifty (750) current legal monthly minimum wages. The penalty indicated in the preceding paragraph will be increased by up to half if the conduct is committed in an inhabited or residential building or in a public property or intended for this use, or in a commercial, industrial or agricultural establishment, or in a transportation terminal, or in the warehouse of goods, food, or in explosive, corrosive, flammable, asphyxiant, toxic, infectious or similar materials or substances, or in forests, floral resources or in areas of special ecological importance. (…)
Additionally, the Environmental Authority informs that it will be in permanent coordination with the Departmental and Municipal authorities, who must report through the Municipal and Departmental Risk Management Councils, the presence of events before the Ungrd and the Ideam.
El Niño is an event of a marine and atmospheric nature that consists of an abnormal warming of surface waters in the central and eastern tropical Pacific, especially off the coasts of northern Peru, Ecuador and southern Colombia.