This is one way of roping kids in to go to school.
Going to school may feel treacherous enough for students as it is, but over 70 pupils from Villa Leidy, near the coastal city of Santa Marta, Colombia risk their lives daily to get to the classroom.
To get to school, the children must cross a makeshift bridge across the alligator-infested Gaira River.
This “bridge” is made from the pipe that supplies water to the whole town as well as a rope.
“The previous bridge was built by our own efforts, but it started to deteriorate in January this year,” mom Dorisa Fadul told local media.
“It was a wooden bridge we made ourselves and it collapsed completely on July 1,” she lamented.
She said parents have begged the town’s council to build a safer bridge “but they have ignored us.”
“Right now, the children run the risk of being swept away by the river because they don’t have a decent bridge to cross,” she explained.
Everyone has to use the bridge if they want to leave the neighborhood and it puts people “at risk.”
“If there isn’t a bridge, we have to use the pipe that supplies us with drinking water,” she said. “Children, elderly people, pregnant women, everyone.”
Eduardo Fadul, who helped to build the first bridge that collapsed, “knocked on the mayor’s door many times” to demand a new bridge.
“We have also informed the risk management office of Santa Marta. They promised us a bridge, but won’t deliver it,” Fadul said.
Fadul said when the water levels are lower, people can use another local resident’s raft to cross the infested waters.
“But when the river is high, he cannot risk his life or those of the children, so it is then time to cross via the pipe,” he explained.
Authorities haven’t told residents when they plan to build a new bridge.
The town is right by El Rodadero, one of the most popular beach towns in Colombia.
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