BRIEFS. National

Residents worried about river bank

People living near the mouth of the Río Farallón are worried that they are fighting a losing battle with the water.

Large chunks of the riverbank have been disappearing as it has been eroded by ocean waves crashing into it.

Luis Lorenzo, a fisherman from the Farallón area, said he wakes up every day praying that his boat, which is docked near the mouth of the river, will not be carried away by the waves.

Government officials recently toured the site and saw the effects of the problem – approximately 30 meters of shoreline, including trees and other vegetation, had been washed into the sea.

While trees and boats are being affected today, there is a real danger that some people could begin to lose their homes.

This is not a new problem, and authorities had built a seawall in 1994. Residents are now asking the government to improve that fortification, which has ceased to provide adequate protection.

"Ideally, people should get out of there and live somewhere else. But we know that most of the residents depend on fishing to survive," said Roberto Velásquez, director of the Sistema Nacional de Protección Civil (Sinaproc) said. "So they don't have much of a choice."