内容摘要：After growing up seeing the Guardian's Hay Festival supplement every year when her dad would buy the paper, this year she was in attendance as a Writer at Work.

After growing up seeing the Guardian's Hay Festival supplement every year when her dad would buy the paper, this year she was in attendance as a Writer at Work.

"I have never seen that kind of floods before in my life, but I am grateful that my family survived it," 65-year-old Ramat Sulaiman said.Ms Sulaiman's house was completely destroyed, rendering her family homeless.

She said 100 children who used to sleep in a Quranic school two blocks from her house "all got washed away"."It was a painful sight for me. The children cried for help, but no one could do anything. As their cries got louder, their building sunk and flowed away."Her son, Saliu, has been left homeless and broke.

"I lost at least $1,500 to the floods. It was the proceeds from the sale of my farm produce the previous day. I contemplated going back into the room to get it, but the pressure of the water scared me," he said."I also lost eleven bags of groundnuts and seven bags of beans. My wife and I couldn't pick anything from our room. But I am grateful we made it out on time. There were so many dead bodies in the water."

He has been having nightmares since, he said.

Authorities are yet to confirm if a dam broke, exacerbating the impact of the recent floods as widely reported.Regarding salmon farming in national reserves, he says that is a different environment which, according to Chilean law and the rules and regulations they follow, they can operate in.

In Chile, the salmon industry is regulated by The Undersecretariat for Fisheries and Aquaculture, a public body that is part of the Ministry of Economy, Development and Tourism.It looks at environmental protection and sustainability, and is also working on a new general aquaculture law to further regulate the sector.

Julio Salas Gutiérrez, the Chilean Undersecretary of Fisheries and Aquaculture, tells the BBC that the government is working to remove fish farms from the national parks."It's not right to claim that the government 'has done nothing for years' regarding the relocation of concessions outside of national parks," he says. "Under the current administration, efforts have been made not only to understand the problem, but also to advance it.