“Con el agua al cuello”: Una historia de batallas perdidas contra el agua y desastres por inundaciones en Colombia, 1950-2011

Since the mid-19th century, vast areas of wetlands in the Andes and Colombian Caribbean regions have been a propitious field to develop desiccation, drainage, and canalization projects for agriculture and urban expansion. This paper synthesizes the sum of factors representing a fight against water, which broke ancient harmonic practices of coexistence with rivers and wetlands. That campaign failed from its start due to the omission of hydric and ecosystem dynamics. This article takes representative junctures, recorded in newspapers, to explain how water's improper management has been one of the leading causes of repetitive and disastrous floods during the 20th and 21st centuries in Sabana de Bogota, the Cauca valley, and the Caribbean plains.