On June 11, 2022, the mayor of Bojayá, Edilfredo Machado Valencia, announced that agreement 9677-PPAL001-762-2022 was signed between the National Risk and Disaster Management Unit, the municipality of Bojayá, Cocomacia and the Ministry of Housing , an agreement that allocated 18,439 million pesos for the relocation of the town of Pogue.
This community, with 696 people, is located in a non-mitigatable high-risk area, in the middle of two rivers, the Pogue River and the Bojayá River, and suffers from continuous flooding, landslides and destruction of homes.
In addition, it does not have public services, electricity is intermittent through a diesel generation plant, and health care and education are precarious.
Sometimes the water level reaches the roof of the houses and landslides have destroyed at least ten houses in recent years.
35% of Pogue territory lives with a high threat of landslides and the other 65% suffers from heavy flooding.
What happened to the $18.439 million that was allocated since June 2022 for the Pogue relocation?
The Attorney General’s Office requested and filed a protection action against the national government and the National Disaster Risk Management Unit to relocate Pogue, prepare and execute a comprehensive repair plan and compensation to the community.