My teaching journal

Pollution of the river La Perdiz by Laura Yiced Muñoz /1006410636

The rivers of Colombia have become the largest deposits of pollution in our country, all the black and dirty waters, contaminated by multiple organic and chemical waste go to the rivers near the cities, this is a serious problem, because For example, the river of Bogota is an orrible thing, it smells ugly ugly because of the amount of pollution that it carries on its back.

In our city Florence, it is not the exception, the river partridge that a time past was an important way of communication to arrive to the city, where the farmers brought their products to sell to the market places. Today is history, there is only one sewer full of tires, garbage, chemical waste, it is a very ugly thing, you can see large clumps of rubble many of them thrown by the same people who live in the city without any concern.

In this environmental problematic, many questions arise, many of them unsolved.

What is happening with the education of people?

Why are they hard to restore an ecosystem damaged by man?

What plans exist to save the biodiversity of the place?

According to a study carried out by the environmental authority, restoring a damaged ecosystem is very expensive, it is cheaper and more effective to educate people so that they do not throw garbage into the river.

The mayor of Florence has invested a lot of money to drain,but who knows where I went to stop because the river is still worse contaminated.

Deforestation of the natural forest in my region

by Edward Adaime / 1117500665

The magnitude of this problem is enormous in the last 6 months have been cut more than 25 thousand hectares of forests in the department of Caquetá, the most serious cases, are observed from the foothills of the Eastern Cordillera (San Vicente del Caguan) to arrive to the thick jungle of the Amazon, where the 3 most important biomes of Colombia are found; Andean, Orinoquía and Amazonia.

Causes are multiple, unemployment, poverty, families with few resources, drug trafficking and abandonment of the state. This has caused a massive migration of people to exploit new lands, with a voracious hunger to cut down trees to create new farms.

According to experts in environmental issues say that this practice of felling and burning is a serious mistake, because in the first place is endangering all the biodiversity that exists in these places, and at the pace that we go in less than 10 years Colombia may witnessing the complete disappearance of their forests in many areas of the country, peasants in the region argue that they search for new lands to survive and support their families, what is a culture inherited by their ancestors of felling, burning and cultivating. At this point a peasant says that when they burn the cut forest it is very difficult to see a lazy monkey hugging her son clinging to him, completely burned.

This part broke my soul, I think it's cynicism, no matter how much need you have, you should not end up with the little nature that remains, it's worth a cow rather than a monkey, than a deer that a tiger, we're ending with their habitas and we do not own these territories, these species have lived for millions of years and we have not become the wolf of ourselves because all these transformations will bring changes in the climate, stronger summers with droughts, and more winters prolonged, sooner or later Mother Earth will pass bill and we will have to react, hopefully this is not too late.

 Environmental Problem

by santiago Ardila / 1126452478

I live in la Hormiga (Valle del Guamuez) Putumayo; I think one of the problems that affect not only our municipality Valle del Guamuez but also our department Putumayo is the exploitation of oil. Since many times when the oil (crude) is transported in tank cars, in particular to this transport the accidents have occurred so this product is poured on rivers, lakes and other water bodies that have caused problems of pollution and damage in the communities.

This region is considered red zone, it is still led by the 48^th front of FARC this play a crucial role since although a peace agreement was signed with this front. They do not accept the conditions and continue to manage this region in the sectors of Puerto Vega-Teteye and slopes of the Putumayo River. There is no doubt that Guerrilla groups continue to do illegal activities like bomb the oil pipeline and spilled crude oil that is transported in tank cars.   

They forced the drivers to empty the content of the tank cars on the road, the crude was spilled reaching ravines and polluting the environment, and also Explosives were putted on the pipelines and then detonated in several sidewalks in our town. The accident of a tank car loaded with oil that had the route from Mocoa to Pitalito My own view is this caused an environmental emergency in Putumayo, because nearly 5,000 gallons were spilled and reached water sources. The detonations of tubes, the spilled oil, brought many consequences and environmental damage in our town and department such as:

Air Pollution

The expulsion of a lot amount of smoke pollutes our environment and damage the health of people in various sectors; this is a crucial issue for who have had to attend hospitals for intoxication and other suffered nausea, headaches and dizziness due to the strong odor from crude oil.

Water Pollution, Soil Pollution and Loss of Biodiversity

To my mind the most immediate impact is water pollution, which makes it undrinkable for consumption. In addition it can have more serious effects, depending on what places it reaches, there the tendency of the oil is to sink. It starts affecting all the aquatic flora and fauna. The fish was altered too, if you ask me it is very important because the families who live near the water bodies rely on it to eat and work, besides the other elements of the environment such as land animals which drinks water in that water bodies, the flower which grow there and the insects which concentrate in swamps or stagnated bodies of water. As far as I concerned, due to the lack of water in the region the inhabitants have had to collect the vital liquid directly from the rivers, it is deposited temporarily in buckets, they wait for the crude settle down to separate and use the water to consume, prepare food and for the personal cleaning. From my point of view it is important to remember that the environment is very delicate and the damage will take several years for the ecosystems to recover completely. Unfortunately the lands and water are still polluted and it is seemed to me there is not a politician who wants to look for a solution.

Discovered Street  and  Pipe  in  bad  Condition in  Fresno  Tolima

By Jeison Ariel Franco

In the municipality of Fresno Tolima, some paving arrangements have been made in the streets and, in addition, the drain pipes that are in poor condition are being changed, and all this has generated chaos in the mobility of the Fresnenses, but this it is not really the problem of what happens; The real problem is that more than 4 months ago the arrangements were completed in most of the streets but there is a street that was not fixed or paved which is located in the center of the municipality and next to a very popular public school. street is not only causing havoc in the mobility of cars and motorcycles but the passers-by can not pass there because it is full of mud and bad smells. This is causing disastrous consequences for the health of the people who live in this sector for their health and also for the health of the students and professors who work in the educational institution, and without naming that the merchants had to close their businesses due to the fact that no one transits this street anymore; on the other hand it is said that the pipeline has been changed in its entirety but that the problem is the paving because due to the change of government in the current year of president has not been possible the tenders that are required for this work to conclude, part of the mayor of the municipality argues that in a few weeks it will be terminated and the sosobra and anguish will end soon.

The bad management of waste in La Dorada, Caldas

By Maria Paula Reyes

The problem arises from the lack of awareness of the inhabitants of the city who do not give proper management to the waste they generate. They do not recycle, they do not reuse and they do not reuse.

In addition, the collector car does not handle recycling because in some homes they recycle but the collector car does not classify recycling. The Alcadia enabled the population to deal with the waste management from the source and, in addition, socialized the environmental comparison, but I think that it has had failures in its application since it is in construction waste in the streets that at the time of rain, the runoffs drag them to the sewage pipes.

I have also seen a lot of styrofoam, disposable diapers, tree waste, and all this covers and creates flooding in the residential areas of the city.

In La Dorada, people do not have the knowledge when they throw away garbage. People are not used to separating their waste because they are lazy or do not know how to do it.

 In many parts of the city, garbage cans have been set up for the citizen to dispose of their garbage in it, but instead they decide to throw the garbage anywhere. This is a large accumulation of garbage in the soil, also on rainy days.

If someone asks me, I think that Colombia is a country that still lacks a lot for the awareness of recycling, the Magdalena River is one of the polluted rivers in Colombia since companies and citizens themselves throw their garbage into it. Of course you see an improvement in some places, but being frank, in municipalities and towns you do not see those improvements; The planet takes a second place in the list of people.

At dawn, when you go to your place of work, you can see the debris scattered on the street because of the dogs who, in their desperation to have a little food, search the garbage. Animals such as rodents and some birds roam the places generating discomfort and discomfort due to the smell.

On the other hand, I believe that from home we have to take care of the environment. We can look for ways to recycle the waste we generate, such as; keep in our pockets or bag the waste that we can not deposit in the street or even begin to separate our waste.

 The world is in a race against that if we do not do something, there will be no reversal.

This work was carried out by the environmental research group Avanced english II