Bogotá.- The contributions from the Colombian private sector to assist those affected and contribute to the reconstruction of the areas devastated by the earthquake on August 10th have already exceeded two trillion pesos (about 651 million dollars), announced President Abelardo de la Espriella this Saturday.
“I have called upon the country’s major business leaders to join efforts with my Government to assist the affected families and rebuild the regions hit by the earthquake. The response has been extraordinary: contributions from the private sector already exceed two trillion pesos,” the president wrote on X.
The figure represents nearly 7% of the at least 30 trillion pesos (about 9.5 billion dollars) that De la Espriella estimated last Monday it will cost to rebuild the affected areas. According to that estimate, about 24.5 trillion pesos would correspond to buildings and another 5.5 trillion to infrastructure.
Among the main corporate contributions are the 200 billion pesos (about 64 million dollars) from the family of banker Luis Carlos Sarmiento, 150 billion (about 48 million dollars) pledged by the family of industrialist Jaime Gilinski, 100 billion (about 32 million dollars) announced by Nubank creator David Vélez, and 100 billion from the Santo Domingo family, among others.
High cost, but financeable
For former Colombian Minister of Finance Juan Camilo Restrepo, who was in charge of that portfolio during the 1999 Eje Cafetero earthquake, the cost of the current reconstruction, although “high, is financeable”.
Restrepo calculated that, “if the process lasts three years and the private sector and international cooperation contribute 15% of the resources, the additional effort for the State would be about 8.5 trillion pesos per year, equivalent to 1.5% of the national budget“.
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Restrepo was Minister of Finance between 1998 and 2000, during the term of President Andrés Pastrana (1998-2002), and participated in the state response to the Armenia earthquake, which left 1,185 dead and more than 8,500 injured.
In contrast, the earthquake on August 10th has already left 329 dead, 4,600 injured, and 247 missing, according to the most recent report from the state-run National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD) released this Saturday.
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In addition, there are 314,751 people affected, grouped into 154,016 families, in 481 municipalities across 16 departments.
The number of damaged homes amounts to 176,890 and another 33,374 were destroyed, while 553 buildings collapsed. Also affected were 525 health centers, 3,546 educational centers, and 423 roads.
The earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.4 and an epicenter in San José del Palmar (Chocó), is the strongest recorded in Colombia so far this century and hit the departments of Chocó, Valle del Cauca, Risaralda, Caldas, and Quindío particularly hard.
