In the north of Colombia the citizens of Santa Marta took to the streets to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the lack of drinking water on the day of the city’s 489th anniversary, Colombian media reported on Tuesday.
Along the Caribbean coast in northern Colombia, Santa Marta celebrated 489 years since the city’s founding; however, this year the citizens marched the annual “Marcha del balde” to protest against the lack of water, which has been exhausted for four months, according to Colombia’s El Espectador newspaper.
The protesters consisted of more than 100 civic leaders and people from nine different communities who were to march the streets carrying the traditional buckets, pots, and hoses with the hope that authorities would take action to mitigate the crisis, where thousands have been without water.
MORE: Santos works out emergency plan to address Colombia’s drought, El Niño
Sixty percent of more than the 1.13 million citizens of Santa Marta have been reported to have gone without adequate access to water. The mayor, Carlos Caicedo, invited citizens to march peacefully and join the events that honor the founding of the city.
“We respect the exercise of protest and expression of frustrated voices. We are delivering water in neighborhoods with tanks, but the crisis has aggravated. We need national resources to solve the problem,” said Mayor Caicedo.
With the incoming threat of El Niño, the Colombian government has constructed an emergency plan to address the water shortage, which could worsen because of the weather phenomenon.
MORE: Colombia braces for El Niño amid already harsh summer drought
