Rain levels recorded in 2022 so far have been "the highest in the last 40 years," says President Petro.
Colombia's President Gustavo Petro has decreed a national disaster after record-breaking rainfalls killed more than 200 people in recent months.
He pointed on Tuesday to the climate crisis and the cyclical La Nina weather system for the record rains and ordered the creation of special "committees" to ensure that people in areas affected by floods or crop losses receive three meals a day.
A state of national disaster would allow the government to give $100 per month — half the minimum wage — to feed the children in households headed by women, and to subsidise fertilisers used by small-scale farmers, the president said.
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Hike in food prices
Rain levels recorded in 2022 so far have been "the highest in the last 40 years," he told reporters in Bogota before departing for Venezuela for a meeting with his counterpart Nicolas Maduro.
Resultant flooding killed 266 people, Petro said, while crop losses aggravated rising food inflation.
In September, Colombia recorded annual inflation of 11.4 percent, the highest in 23 years, with food prices among those rising the fastest.
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