The Cauca river has seen its water levels recede as EPM reduces the volume of water flowing from its troubled Hidroituango dam.

Two of the dam’s floodgates were closed this week following concerns that it posed a danger to vulnerable communities along the Cauca river in Antioquia. However, the decision now poses a greater threat to the river’s ecosystem.

José Iván Mojica, biologist and curator of the scientific fish collections of the Institute of Natural Sciences of the National University, told W what is happening in the hydroelectric: “There is the Cauca river, they raise the dam, seal a tunnel, and close the flow of water”. The result is the drying up of the river which is a living organism. “The river has life. - said Mojica, adding that “it is the worst moment for what has happened; because in January and February it stops raining and less water reaches the swamps".

At the same time, there are low flows but the maximum population of fish.

On the future of the fish population, Mojica explained that there will be isolated ponds and because of the weather they will heat up, so the fish will begin to lack air and die.

On the other hand, Modesto Portilla, professor of geosciences of National University, added that "the sediments are also alive. There lives a quantity of organisms that the river needs".

Similarly, Portilla warned what could happen if the crisis got out of control is that the dam could collapse and could get rid of the surrounding territory.

Rafael Moreno, representing 541 fishing families of Lower Cauca, said that the communities depend on the fishing of the Cauca River. “All of these families - said Moreno - have been ancestrally dedicated to fishing. The population of Lower Cauca is composed of three different ethnic groups and they live on the river. We are talking about 1400 people. They lost their mean of life. The State must compensate them."

Modesto Portilla also questioned the number of fish rescued: according to a statement, they were between 7,000 and 9,000 fish, yet the number of fishermen involved in the rescue were said to have been 700. “Are we to believe that each fisherman rescued 10 fish?" asked Portilla.

Experts agreed that damages caused by this disaster are “extremely serious and border the irreversible” and criticized the actions of the authorities in Colombia. "In another country this would not have happened, - said Mojica - it is inconceivable that a company makes the decision to dry a river”.

ANLA, the regulatory body in charge of granting environmental licences, announced on January 21 that it had “initiated an environmental sanction procedure against the company Hidroituango SAESP, as the owner of the environmental license, for allegedly not guaranteeing downstream of the dam, the ecological flow to ensure the integrity of the services ecosystems and the environmental protection assets of the Cauca River.”

Background

The hydroelectric dam Hidroituango was more than a prestige project by EPM, the electricity company owned by the governing authority of Antioquia. The project promised to provide 16% of Colombia’s electricity needs and is valued at around US$4 billion. However, in April last year landslides in the region blocked tunnels that rerouted the river around the project. As two of the exits in the engine room were now blocked, the reservoir began to fill and EPM were in a race against time to raise the level of the embankment to prevent a catastrophic flood. The company was successful in increasing the dam’s height but the resulting alert, however, displaced thousands of people in the low-lying regions in the river’s path.

The city of Valdivia saw a large influx from low-lying regions of the Cauca following the red alert issued by EPM.

The villages of Puerto Valdivia, Cáceres, Tarazá and Caucasia have all remained on alert to this day to the risk of another flood. Puerto Valdivia is at the highest risk if the dam were to burst and the authorities have said that the community has around 45 minutes to evacuate if the worst case scenario were to happen. Although initially a ghost town after the first red alerts were issued, many have returned to Puerto Valdivia, choosing to risk their lives over abandoning their homes for higher ground.