By Camilo Parra
Relief agencies have been attending to a fire in the eastern hills, in the north of Bogotá, for two days. While air quality worsens, experts analyze what is needed to act faster and highlight a project against fires in the hills, which despite being structured never saw the light of day.
Credit: Laura Salomón, El Espectador
The plan that did not see the light
The key problems that the Bogotá Firefighters face when dealing with fires in the hills are the difficulty in accessing hot shafts and the water supply. That is why helicopters must be used, which must recharge the water, either in the north of the city or in the Simón Bolívar park, or using aircraft that come loaded from other regions.
Bibiana Rodríguez, director of Urban Development of Probogotá, points out that this problem could have been faced since 2018, when the District developed the District Disaster Risk and Climate Change Management Plan for Bogotá (2018-2030). There, a forest fire program was recommended that would be a model for Latin America and the Caribbean, the axis of which was a protection path in the hills. “The possibility of a firefighting system in the eastern hills was discussed. In 10 years, 638 hectares of forests had burned, covering nearly 11 locations, and a cluster of more than 227 fires were recorded with material losses. Environmental and human losses were estimated at $17 billion,” he indicated.