The Minister of Mines and Energy, Andrés Camacho, highlighted that the country managed to overcome this stage, “without a single minute of rationing.”
The minister said: “We have overcome the El Niño phenomenon! We spent the months with the highest temperatures and least rain in our history in five decades. Even so, without a second of energy rationing, and with more than a year of preparation, 35 PMU (Unified Command Post) sessions and 50 actions, together we have achieved it.’
The official added in the same message that “we have been doing all the consolidation of the data of our reservoirs, and thanks to the work we have done with unions, but especially with citizens, for the care of water and the care of energy, Today we can announce that thanks to the forecasts given to us by Ideam we have overcome the El Niño phenomenon in terms of energy, without a second of rationing.’
The minister, after highlighting that this is very good news for the country, maintained that this “ensures that we can follow the path of the energy transition, that our (national electricity) system has been resilient, and that it has withstood the worst temperatures. , the highest temperatures in recent decades and the lowest rainfall levels in five decades’.
And he concluded: “So regardless of these conditions and thanks to the technical work, with capacity, that has been done in this sector, today we can say that we have overcome the El Niño phenomenon together.”
Climate threat
According to the Ideam (Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies), “the El Niño phenomenon is a climatic event that is generated every certain number of years by the warming of the Pacific Ocean. Its effects are notable in the north of the Pacific region, the departments of the Andean region and in the departments of the Caribbean region.
This phenomenon was officially declared by the national government on November 4, and in light of its termination, the director of Ideam, Ghisliane Echeverry Prieto, explained that the issue must be addressed from two perspectives.
“One, from the climate threat. At this moment we hope that in the next month the temperature of the Pacific Ocean will neutralize, and with that the El Niño phenomenon would end,’ the expert explained.
The second line of analysis is regarding the impacts of the climate phenomenon. “We must remember that river channels, runoff and river flows do not necessarily recover from one day to the next, so there will be some delays in these impacts. That is, each sector will be the one that will be able to account for these impacts,’ the official added.
The director of Ideam added that, although in recent weeks there has been an increase in rainfall, “in the coming weeks the rains will come on soil that has suffered thermal stress, that is, eroded, and this can produce another type of impacts’.
Source: Ministry of Mines