Guardian · 5 hours ago

Rainwater Harvesting and eco-gardens: How One Colombian Neighbourhood Helped a Whole City Plan for Climate Change | Colombia | the...

In a hillside neighborhood where 500 people once died in a landslide, residents are refusing to wait for rescue from above. Róbinson Velásquez Cartagena designed a rainwater harvesting system in his own home to prove a simple truth: "We need solutions like that because the level of risk is very high." What began as a community disaster plan in Comuna 8 became a blueprint for all of Medellín -- tree nurseries on unstable slopes, eco-gardens that stabilize land while preventing illegal construction, grassroots innovations that cost little but require everything. The most critical lesson, says the city's disaster management head, was learning "to work closely with the people, as they live in the territories and know the local hazards." Between hope and hard-won realism, these neighbors are showing that climate adaptation doesn't trickle down -- it grows from the ground where people stand.