Who cannot stop rain: Colombia of very, very wet 11 months

In the novel one hundred years of Solitude, a shower of five years of imprisons people in their homes, lavis far banana plantation and reduced the town of Macondo in ruins. But the flood imagined by the Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez, in his masterpiece of realism magical blades from real life now flooding of her homeland.

Among the 11 months of rain almost nonstop, dikes burst and rivers have topped their banks, flooding communities, cattle and cultivated in 28 of the 32 departments of Colombia. Waterlogged Andean Mountain flanks collapsed, burying the neighbourhoods and the blocking of roads. More than 1,000 people were killed, wounded or missing. In the flooded town of Puerto Boyacá in the Centre of the Colombia, caskets holding the dead are being floated in the cemetery of boats. (Read a Q & A with President Santos the Colombia)

Altogether, more than 3 million people - about 7% of the population of the Colombia - have been displaced or suffered damage of major water from their homes and their livelihoods. President Juan Manuel Santos called natural disaster in worsgt, in the history of the country, predicted his Government shave 2.5% of GDP in 2011 of the Colombia. But practically person outside the Colombia noticed because the tragedy, an earthquake or a hurricane, took place at idle. "Drop Drop rain causes more damage every day," said Santos recently. "It is like Chinese water torture".

Santos and other government officials blame La Ni?a, the meteorological phenomenon that causes abnormally low temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the Ecuador and provokes heavy rains. La Ni?a launched towards mid-2010, dumping five to six times the amount average of rain on some parts of the Colombia. And no there was no respite. Wet weather last year, continued by what is normally the dry season Colombia and merged with the current rainy season.

What complicates matters is extreme geography. Colombia is divided by three Andean chains, and mountain rain saturated soil is crumbling away, causing landslides daily and sedimentation - which raises sheets of water in the rivers. One of the hardest hit cities is Cúcuta, located on the Venezuelan border. Collapses and landslides have blocked roads leading to Bogotá and the Caribbean coast, leaving residents largely cut-off from the rest of the country. Ironically, Cúcuta also lack water drinking because so much rain increased sediment in the local rivers, overloading the system for the purification of the water of the city.

Santos has been toured some areas flooded worse, but the response of the Government was marred by bottlenecks and transplantation bottlenecks. Due to the isolation of the flooded villages, the inexperience of local officials and the presence of rebels and drug traffickers, only four projects 753 works to repair roads, bridges, homes and schools are underway. Four Governors and 26 mayors are investigated for allegedly mishandling flood assistance. Outraged victims blocked roads in protest. (See the photos of the FARC, army of notorious guerrilla of the Colombia)

Yet long before rain hit officials, Colombian had paved the way for this tragedy. They allowed developers to build housing projects on flood plains and has failed to build retaining walls and dykes. Rain showers even modest average for drainage systems ill-conceived can transform streets into lakes. During this time, the efforts to develop modern highways that can better withstand heavy rains hit speed bumps. On Tuesday, Inspector General of the Colombia suspended Mayor of Bogotá Samuel Moreno from his post temporarily in a scandal of bribery widening involving road construction contracts. (Moreno denies involvement).

In regards to the waterways of the country, re-engineering made some were even more prone to flooding. "It's natural disasters but, essentially, they are artificial," Bruno Moro, Colombia United Nations humanitarian coordinator, said in time. A striking example is the Bogotá River, which runs through the capital and became a master key dump runoff garbage, industrial and waste waters. Waste more the rerouting of rivers in the River have increased water levels, and massive earth embankments are now required to keep the River on the course. To make matters worse, the dykes sometimes fail.

The Universidad de Sabana (University of the Savannah), one of the Colombia elite educational institutions, is located near the Bogotá River, on the outskirts of capital city of Chía. April 25, the soaring River hit a long hole of 60 feet (18 m) in a nearby dike. Now, laboratories amphitheatre, science and the University libraries to sit five feet deep (1.5 m) in the putrid black water. As he slips in a boat made of aluminum for a mission to rescue class offices and computers, a volunteer rescue worker Luis Gabriel Angel said: "Nobody imagined the flood would be bad."

Fortunately, torrential rains last as long as they did in Macondo fiction. Forecasters predict that the rain will be peter out in July. But global warming and climate changes in Colombian must get used to the extreme weather, said Ricardo Lozano, who heads the Government Institute of hydrology, meteorology and environmental studies. He noted that, just before the flood, Colombia suffered by a long period of drought. "It is wrong to think that climate change is a future threat because it will take place now," said Lozano. "The world should learn from what happens in Colombia.".