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Colombia Pacific Lowlands
In the 1980s, only 3 percent of all Colombians resided
in the
Pacific lowlands, a region of jungle and swamp with
considerable
but little-exploited potential in minerals and other
resources.
Buenaventura is the only port of any size on the coast. On
the
east, the Pacific lowlands are bounded by the Cordillera
Occidental, from which numerous streams run. Most of the
streams
flow westward to the Pacific, but the largest, the
navigable Río
Atrato, flows northward to the Golfo de Urabá, making the
river
settlements accessible to the major Atlantic ports and
commercially
related primarily to the Caribbean lowlands hinterland. To
the west
of the Río Atrato rises the Serranía de Baudo, an isolated
chain of
low mountains that occupies a large part of the region.
Its highest
elevation is less than 1,800 meters, and its vegetation
resembles
that of the surrounding tropical forest.
The Atrato Swamp--in Chocó Department adjoining the
border with
Panama--is a deep muck sixty-five kilometers in width that
for
years has challenged engineers seeking to complete the Pan
American
Highway. This stretch, near Turbo, where the highway is
interrupted
is known as the Tapón del Chocó (Chocon Plug). A second
major
transportation project involving Chocó Department has been
proposed. A second interoceanic canal would be constructed
by
dredging the Río Atrato and other streams and digging
short access
canals. Completion of either of these projects would do
much to
transform this somnolent region.
Data as of December 1988
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