November 3rd, 2022 will be marked as an important date in the recent history of the city of “Puerto La Cruz”, and not precisely in a positive light.
By La Patilla – Javier A. Guaipo
Nov 09, 2022
That day will never be forgotten due to the landslide that occurred in the “Valle Verde” sector, which left seven people dead and caused damage to more than 180 homes, according to official sources.
Local and regional government authorities attributed the tragedy to the heavy and constant rainfall that occurred in the northern part of the State. However, there are those who say that the disaster had been brewing for years, and could even have been avoided if the appropriate preventive measures had been taken.
According to Rodolfo Gil, President of the “Agua Para Todos” foundation and lawyer specializing in Environmental Law, the rain was just one of the triggers for the event, but not the main one.
“We have been making calls for attention for around 15 years so that measures be taken regarding the indiscriminate clearcut logging that has occurred throughout the entire “Puerto La Cruz” valley. It was clear to us that an episode of this magnitude could occur because the mountains were left unprotected by the vegetation, which in the end is what holds the soil with the roots of the trees.”
Gil explained that when there is a downpour of more than four hours, as it happened on the day of the tragedy, in soils that are practically “naked”, these become saturated and flow towards the lower part of the mountain, which in this case were Main and Fermín Toro streets of Valle Verde.
Improvised “Conucos”
According to the environmental lawyer, the only purpose of deforestation in these hills is the creation of improvised “conucos” (subsistence mixed cropping) for planting predominantly corn. Incidentally, these practices have been promoted by the authorities who have been in charge of the Sotillo Municipality in recent years.
“Especially in times of electoral campaigns, both seeds and tools are handed out left and right so that people, without prior study of the land, dedicate themselves to planting, disregarding the risk of promoting erosion or a landslide.”
The President of the “Agua Para Todos” Foundation insisted that this type of populist action is a major problem, “because the political leaders are only trying to take advantage of the unemployment and hunger that prevails in these communities without taking into account the latent dangers.”
He reiterated that the planting of corn in those slopes has not been supervised in any way and has been criticized. The Ministry of Ecosocialism has not ruled on the indiscriminate land clearing.
“It is true that many of these families do not have better options to survive. But then they take spaces that cannot be used for that, and this has consequences, even for the storm drains of the city, since these collapse with the runoff after any precipitation. It is an action to get people get out of their hair for three months, but then they are worse off, because they run the risk of a disaster happening.”
Soil Conditions
Mr. Gil stressed that he has dedicated part of his life to studying everything related to “Puerto La Cruz” and this has allowed him to know that these hills are largely composed of sandstone, they are emerged sea floor that was formerly under the sea.
“These are sediments that with any amount of water that allows saturating the soils, are going to slide and even more so when they are unprotected by the vegetation layer that naturally covers them. Therefore, these precarious houses, “ranchos” (improvised sheds) and improvised constructions are a risk for the very families that reside there.”
The specialist noted that the risk is due to the fact that once the harvest season is over, the soil is exposed because there is nothing covering the slopes and when a significant rainfall level falls, they become saturated and come off.
Reforestation
Rodolfo Gil called on the government entities to not allow anymore the indiscriminate logging on those slopes or any other hills, but rather to promote the reforestation of the area with native trees to somehow guarantee the people who reside there the protection the vegetation provides.
“It is necessary to end these practices that not only occur in “Puerto La Cruz”, but also in the rural areas of Sotillo. This situation can also be seen along the banks of the Neverí River where we also have had landslides and the remains of trees fall into the tributaries of the river,” he pointed out.
Finally, he assured that the Caratal channel has also been affected by landslides, caused by the same situation and on several occasions it has become clogged, which leads to the drinking water service being suspended.
“We saw this in time and warned that the damage caused to those mountains could result in a tragedy like this and unfortunately it happened. That is why we insist on a call to attention to take action on this matter to avoid more unfortunate episodes which, in addition to material losses, cause the loss of human lives.
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Read More: La Patilla – Landslide in Valle Verde had been brewing for years under the complicit gaze of the State
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