04A. Hatillo de Loba
with the precarious settlement conditions, which may be defined as a type of slum formation, conclude in constant disasters and situations of despair and misery.
Location
Hatillo de Loba is one of the townships most affected by extreme rainfall seasons. So far, the community has not found a reasonable solution to the problem they face, which over the past few years has worsened due to weather calamities. Most members of the community have lost their houses, crops, livestock and personal belongings due to the floods. How much of what the community manages to reconstruct is the next rainfall season going to affect or rather destroy? Is it possible to propose new affordable and sustainable ways of adaptation to the drastic weather changes they face currently and will face tomorrow?
Hatillo de Loba, Bolivar, Colombia
General Information Hatillo de Loba, part of the state of Bolivar, is made up of a series of recent urban settlements adjacent to the basin of branching water bodies of the Magdalena River. The Magdalena River is Colombia’s biggest and most import river as it operates as the main water transportation road. The area of the basin corresponds to 22.8% of the total surface of the national territory. People look to settle in the river floodplains as it is an optimal area, providing basic resources such as drinking water, wood for cooking and heating, abundant fishing and fertile land for agriculture. Many of the inhabitants in these settlements have moved from other previous locations running away from hostile environments. Some of them arrived homeless on the river floodplains, bringing with them complicated backgrounds and difficult future perspectives. Several of these displaced communities have lost their previous homes and land, that was located in the midst of the narcotraffic war between guerillas and paramilitaries, and have found a place for a new beginning in the river floodplains and swamps of the Mompox Depression. A large number of the settlements represent a high scarcity in many different aspects due to the political, economical and social situation combined with the environmental complexity of the habitat. Drastic weather behaviors, characterized mostly by intense floods, in combination
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