This week, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos called for emergency measures to be adopted in order to manage the intense drought conditions that Colombia has been facing since September. El Niño-related effects have intensified the regional dry season, and there has been a record lack of rainfall throughout the country this year.
As a result, a red alert has been declared due to low water levels in the country's two principal waterways -the Magdalena and Cauca rivers. "The Magdalena (river) is at levels which we haven't seen since 1973: the channel is at 45 centimeters [17.7 inches] when it should be around 134 centimeters [52.7 inches]," Santos declared earlier this week, reports the Latin American Herald Tribune.
In order to manage the water shortage conditions, Santos has called for emergency measures to be adopted. "I invite all Colombians to act against wastefulness. During this dry season we must save water and energy," he tweeted on Wednesday.
One-fifth of Colombia's municipalities are already operating under water-rationing measures due to El Niño-related rainfall deficiencies, Reuters reports. The president also suggested that further energy-rationing measures might be necessary as Colombia's energy supply is 70 percent hydroelectric.
A red alert has also been issued for the wave of wildfires that the country has experienced this season. In December, there were 132 fires reported across Colombia, according to the National Risk and Disaster Management Unit (UNGRD). This is reflective of a yearlong upward trend in forest fires, with more than 4,000 fires having been reported across the country through 2015, explains the Latin Correspondent.
Santos stated that wildfires have consumed more than 100,000 hectares of territory across more than 500 municipalities in the past few months. "More than half of the country's forests are affected by fires," Santos said, while also mentioning that 98 percent of the fires were connected to human causes, according to GlobalPost.
The impact of this year's intensified El Niño has caused emergency flooding and drought conditions through different regions of South America.
