At least six people died and 13 are still missing in Guatemala, after a river devastated six marginal neighborhoods in the capital following heavy rains, civil protection authorities announced on Monday.
“Six bodies were found (…), two minors and the other adult,” Walter Monroy, undersecretary of the National Coordination for Disaster Reduction (Conred, civil protection), told the press.
The “flood of the river destroyed the houses of the Dios Es Fiel neighborhood, located under the El Naranjo bridge,” said Conred spokesman Rodolfo García previously, who explained that the sudden increase in the water level generated a “reservoir” of water that was formed after a landslide upstream.
Hundreds of rescue teams are participating in the search, which was suspended on Monday due to the rains and will resume this Tuesday, according to the spokesman for the volunteer fire department, Bayron Morales.
Despite being illegal, hundreds of improvised homes were built on the banks of the Naranjo River, which receives much of the capital’s wastewater.
Thousands of people in Guatemala, where 59% of its population of 17.7 million inhabitants live in poverty, were forced to build homes in risk areas due to lack of housing.
According to the Guatemalan Chamber of Construction and the National Association of Home Builders, the country suffers a deficit of around two million homes.
Source: TSF
