Gestión del riesgo de inundaciones en Colombia

The last rainy season 2010-2011 resulted in Colombia in around 500 casualties and more than 3.6 million of victims. Although this rainfall term accounted for one of the strongest it was not an unprecedented event since for more than fiftyyears this phenomenon has been taking place in the same Colombian regions producing casualties and victims. This fact makes us to think about the public management by authorities regarding flooding prevention in our country. This article elaborates on this topic explaining the risk management system in case of flooding in Colombia. It shows some national figures of the main ravages brought about by the 2010-2011 rainy seasons. Finally the article analyzes two cases of study of how operational is this public policy in risk management: La Mojana and Canal del Dique regions. It was evident that the state failed in managing the risk management from flooding because despite the important investment, every year the victims, casualties and material damages are increasing steadily.