by Sibyalla Brodzinsky, The Guardian, UK – A surprise five-minute rain shower falls like a taunt over the scorched riverbed of the Ranchería river: fat raindrops spatter in the dust but evaporate almost immediately. Nearby, a young girl and boy scoop out a bowlful of cloudy groundwater from a makeshift well to wash a few scraps of clothes.
The Ranchería river has run dry after three years of intense drought, decades of overuse and a lifetime of public corruption in the province of La Guajira, one of Colombia’s poorest and most forgotten regions. Crops have long ago shrivelled, babies are dying of malnutrition and livestock are wasting away from thirst.
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