A first look at whether the new Vargas tragedy could have been averted
By Miguel Octavio | The Devil's Excrement
Introduction
14.02.05 | During the last week, the weather in
That tragedy was like nothing
Vargas state is a rather small and densely populated state whose history is strongly tied to the history of
Before
the Caracas-La Guaira highway was built in the 1950’s (a rise of 3,000
feet in only 10 miles), people went down to Vargas from Caracas via the
old highway or the railroad. Some people would own or rent little
townhouses, mostly in the town of
As
is usually the case, people took advantage of the topography of
the state. In this case, all of these towns were located in a sort
of one dimensional strip line with population centers in land areas
formed in time by nature, as water, mud and rocks came down from the
mountain range. In fact, a satellite photo of the area shows that most
of the towns along the Coast are on sort of protuberances formed by the
rivers that come down from the mountains. There are 23 such brooks or
rivers to the East of Maiquetia where the
A tale of two tragedies
While
the Government has been selling the idea that the 1999 tragedy and this
one are similar in scope, this is simply not true. The 1999 tragedy was
truly a “one hundred year” phenomenon. There was continuous rain for
forty days. In the last fifteen days rains increased
their intensity and in the last three days a total of 1000
millimeters (39. 4 inches) of rain were recorded. In contrast, only 4
inches of rain fell in the two and a half days of rain earlier this
week.
Thus, in the 1999 floods, water had saturated the ground to the point that the new rains flowed all above ground, leading to mudslides all the way from the top of the mountain range which is as high as 2980 meters (9776 feet) in height. Mud, rocks and water came tumbling down the mountain taking everything on its way with it. This is what is called in Spanish a “deslave”. There is a very good gallery of pictures from that tragedy here, from which I have stolen four, to indicate the magnitude of what happened. Notethe size of the mudslides in the first two, its height in the third one and the "scratches" on the mountains as the water washed all of the topsoil.
This
time around, what we have had up to now, cross your fingers, is simply
flash flooding with mud and sediments being moved at the lowest level,
but so far there has been no rocks or mud coming from the mountains.
The
deslave is a phenomenon that has been known to occur every fifty years
or so, the previous one on record taking place in 1951. In contrast,
there have been torrential rains before, but never had their impact
been so large. True, the amount of rainfall was the highest for any two
day period, but there have been comparable periods recorded before.
The Reconstruction
After
the tragedy in 1999, the Chavez administration created the Autoridad
Unica de Vargas and put in charge of it Engineer and Professor Carlos
Genatios. This office coordinated a project that involved all of the
aspects of the reconstruction of the state, from building the new roads
and bridges, to the new canalization of all of the 23 rivers that come
down from the mountain, ending with the urban planning surrounding al
of it. The
projects originated in a combination of studies and
plans made by engineering firms and academic institutions. The
academic institutions, mainly Universidad Central de Venezuela,
Universidad Simon Bolivar and Universidad Metropolitana, worked mostly
for free.
Right
after the tragedy, the US Government sent three ships with members of
the US Core of Engineers to donate the road that needed to be built
from Macuto to Los Caracas. The estimate was that this could be done in
sixty days. After the ships were on the way, the Venezuelan Government,
which had initially asked for the engineers, said they were not needed.
No such road has completely been built in the last four years.
When the plans and projects were completed, Genatios himself addressed the nation to tell people about the plans. A little more detail is found here.
The
Venezuelan National Assembly approved US$ 1 billion for the project,
which at the time was hailed as the showcase for how effective the
revolution could be. This was on top of another US$ 200 million used
for the clean up, as well as international contributions in the amount
of roughly US$ 185 million. The project in
fact had detractors within the Chavez administration. To some, Vargas
represented what was wrong with the population distribution in
Corpovargas
The
Autoridad Unica executed some of the initial plans for the project,
mostly the clean up and removal of mud, rocks and debris and the
initial build up of roads. At that point, the Government created
Corpovargas, a development corporation to execute the plans which had
been budgeted. The first President of Corpovargas was an engineer, the
next two military officials.
To
date, Corpovargas has completed only 4 of the 23 canalization projects
included in the original design, it has done little in terms of urban
planning and has only built a few of the new bridges that were
contemplated in the original project. What is worse is that the
carefully designed projects by the Autoridad Unica were all ignored and
designs were changed. Let’s look at four cases:
-
-Carmen
de Uria: This was the area most affected by the 1999 tragedy. The
road and canalization were never built. This was the first point in
which flood wates isolated one side of the state from the other as the
coastal highway, which had just been paved superficially, was simply
washed away.
-Camuri Chico and
-Roads
in general: There were many landslides and the roads gave way in many
locations. This is hard to predict where it will occur, but it happened
in locations that were supposed to have special reinforcement, like in
one of the pictures I show below.
All
of this shows a pattern of negligence, incompetence and ignorance which
borders on the criminal. Those responsible should be punished and the
Attorney General should initiate an investigation with the same
expediency and dedication that it does in political cases. But even
worse, there is the usual question hanging in the air: Where is the
money?
And
that is one of the biggest mysteries of the reconstruction project,
funds were budgeted to complete the road and all 23 canalization
projects. But, designs were changed to make everything cheaper, the
road was never finished and only 4 of the 23 canalizations was
completed and this was considered to be the top priority in the
original project.
The Warnings
There
were plenty of warnings about all of these problems. Two people led
these charges: the former President of the Autoridad Unica Carlos
Genatios and National Assembly Deputy for Vargas state Pedro Castillo.
Genatios is still considered to be pro-Government and Castillo is a
member of the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) party. Both have been
relentless on their criticism and asking for accountability of how the
funds were spent.
El Nacional had excerpts from some of Genatios’ statements:
Dec.
22 2003: "Corpovargas has built open metallic dams, changing the
original designs. Some of these dams do not do not fulfill the safety
requirements, especially the metallic mesh with rock, which could be
destroyed by high water flows, increasing the danger for the
population."
Jan.
16 2005: "Projects were changed, they did not use concrete with steel
bars and made them open structures, they have done nothing about urban
planning and the strict security and risk requirements. It is necessary
to act and prevent...Corpovargas can and has to reconsider and repair
the public works that were badly built for the good of the population."
Conclusions
I must say that, when I began researching this topic, I did not believe situation was as bad as I have found out. This whole thing is so irresponsible that those Government officials that are saying that it would have been worse if they had not done all of the public works had not been built, should be ashamed of themselves. The Government should look in detail at how the funds were spent and why things were changed. They should prosecute with energy, but I am not very optimistic.
The military and civilians have done a very good job at rescuing and aiding people. Thanks God, they military and the whole civil defense system was already deployed to protect Venezuelans taking their Carnival vacation in the affected areas in Vargas state.
Note Added: Francisco Olivares in today's El Universal describes very much what I posted here last night.
12:49:01 AM
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