The Colombian Government published the decree that makes it official “the natural disaster” due to the forest fires that have affected the country since last November, especially in the Andean region, official sources reported this Sunday.
The National Unit for Risk Management (Ungrd) detailed in a statement that this measure is “a crucial step to meet the challenges that the emergency poses and undertakes to prepare the Specific Action Plan for the management of the disaster situation”.
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The decree had been announced last Wednesday by the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, and establishes that the declaration of natural disaster will be in force, initially, for twelve months, a period that can be extended “after favorable evaluation of Disaster Risk Management.”
With this decree, for example, strategies will also be developed to respond to fires, as well as to rehabilitate and reconstruct areas affected by the fire, which has devastated hundreds of hectares of moors, forests and vegetation.
Meanwhile, the fire has been subsiding in recent days and, according to the UNGRD crisis room, this Sunday only five forest fires remained active in the country, a lower number if sKeep in mind that in the middle of the week there were more than 30.