The water of La Rafita stream tore through Medellín’s El Pacífico neighbourhood in Colombia on the afternoon of 18 September, 2020. Four houses were swept away and a dozen more ended up flooded.
“It was a total tragedy. When night fell, everything was dark. You couldn’t see,” recalls Nancy Quirós, a member of the Junta de Acción Comunal (Community Action Board), an elected local government that represents El Pacífico. Firefighters arrived at dusk and worked without street lighting to rescue those trapped in their homes.
The residents – mostly displaced victims of Colombia’s ongoing internal armed conflict, who had moved to the area seeking a better life – were used to living without street lighting, due to a lack of maintenance. They avoided going out after dark and, if necessary, used their mobile phones to illuminate the narrow concrete stairs that…
