The dissertation focuses on urban inequality as a historical product of the asymmetrical power in the transformation, use and appropriation of Bogota’s environment during mid-20th century. For that, the environmental change in the transition zone between medium and lower sections of the Tunjuelo river basin, located in southern Bogota is analyzed. In that area, several actors participated in its physical transformation since the 1940s. On the one hand, mining companies that exploded building materials affected the river’s dynamic by modifying its riparian areas, and by pouring sediments on the river bed. On the other, Bogota’s aqueduct company built three dams for satisfying the demand of water of the northern and central parts of the city. These engineered projects also affected the river and influenced on the occurrence of floods. Finally, private landlords and poor inhabitants modified a former wetland located downwards the mines and the dams, by landfilling and draining it, in order to build their houses. As a product of that transformation, disasters related to periodic floods became more frequent and severe. These events affected especially Meissen, Tunjuelito, and San Benito neighborhoods, labeled as illegal and clandestine by the State officials, and inhabited mainly by poor people. In contrast, official and dominant interpretation of disasters concealed the impacts made by the state and industries, and blamed the river and its riparian inhabitants for the tragedy. That “selective concealing” contributed to legitimize the State and the social structure, both of the responsible for the inequalities related to the asymmetrical power in the transformation, use and appropriation of Bogota’s environment.