Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos ordered the immediate release of $527 million to help victims of floods that have devastated the north of Colombia.
The money will be available Thursday for the departments that are hit hardest by the rainy season that has left more than 2.3 million Colombians affected.
In a press conference at the presidential palace in Bogota, Everardo Murillo, director of the National Calamity Fund, told reporters that the money “will begin to be transfered as soon as posssible.”
“Today we asked all governors to respond to a request we did last night … asking them to give us the cencus of affected so that, with this information, tomorrow we can proceed to give money to the departments and the mayors of the departmental capitals,” Murillo said.
The money will have to be used for the construction of shelters and food for displaced families.
Mutillo called on victims to make sure to oversee the process.
“You must yourself control this food. You must make sure that it is being delivered by the governors to the mayors, because they have to arrive in sufficient quantities and for the necessary period,” the official said.
