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Peru on alert: Water supply at risk, could be rationed in 2009

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

Glaciers melting at a record-breaking pace and the forecast of little rain has worried and put water companies in the Andean country on alert.

SEDAPAL, one of Peru's largest water companies, has warned that the country's water supply is at risk.

Guillermo Leon, the president of SEDAPAL, announced that the company has officially put out an alert, stating the water supply is at risk because of shrinking glaciers and forecasts of little rain.

He explained that Lima's water could be rationed in 2009 the way it was in 2004 if Peru's water reserves are not administered more efficiently.

In a recent report released by Peru's El Comercio, it was revealed that the government's "Agua para Todos" (Water for Everyone) program was adding people to the country's water system without increasing its supply.

The program will have introduced over 900,000 new families into Lima's water supply system by the end of this year without having found any new sources to meet this demand.

The daily also pointed out that while there were people in Lima's poorer districts that lived on 36 liters of water (3 days for a family of six) there were others that used thousands of liters on the same necessities.

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# Thirsty... says :
9 June, 2008 [ 16:08 ]

Hmm...desalination may be the only way to fix this problem. Oops! Can't do that because SEDAPAL is dumping raw sewage into the ocean!

I hope they realize the error of their mistake sooner rather than later.

# Anonymous Dave says :
9 June, 2008 [ 21:00 ]

Perhaps the desalinated turds can be used as fertilizer?

# CapitanDan says :
9 June, 2008 [ 21:43 ]

We have plenty of sewage , let's use the by product methane gas to power desalination plants and convert the rest to fertilizer instead of dumping it into the ocean and ruining our fisheries.  We have large areas of sand dunes that could be easily made into drying pits . We have a choice. Pay now or pay more latter.Chau

# A.K. says :
10 June, 2008 [ 03:22 ]

I worked at a sewage treatment plant for about a year. The water was reclaimed for irrigation, though it is drinkable, and a portion of the solid waste was used for fertilizer. Its old news I know, but its very limited here . Maybe the large businesses reaping the rewards of Peru's current economic growth can pitch in on this technology? After all, their future profits depends on as well...

# Splaktar says :
10 June, 2008 [ 09:01 ]

I figured we'd start seeing more news about this soon.  This looks like it will be one of the top problems in Peru over the next 5 years.  Not a good time to live in Lima.

# CapitanDan says :
10 June, 2008 [ 11:15 ]

AK your right it is drinkable. LA is looking into this ,because they are still in the midst of a 5 year drought. In Spain outside of Madrid they have a large Solar Collector that uses fresh water to generate electricity. The same can be used here. Use salt water convert it to steam ,generate electricity ,reclaim the condensate for drinking or agriculture. This is known technology.. As for large companies pitching in. They only look at the bottom line and have to be reminded of their duties to the environment and the people that live in Peru. Chau

# Ted Vitko says :
10 June, 2008 [ 13:29 ]

Good comments, but salt water desalinization is still expensive and has its negative environmental impacts. It makes more sense to treat sewage and use it for irrigation, reducing the amount of freshwater use in agriculture.

It is time for SEDAPAL to take serious steps to 1) account for the piped drinking water (about half is used in illegal water connections), 2) begin a water conservation campaign, 3) identify Rimac River's forebay in order to impound any excess water (ocurring during Dec-Mar heavy rainstorms) to begin storing it in the highly depleted Lima's groundwater, and 4) treat the sewage that currently flows raw onto beaches.

# Rice and sugar says :
10 June, 2008 [ 14:56 ]

A.K. you are right. In Toronto, Canada they do the same thing with sewage treatment. I have a question though, is sewage treatment expensive? I know desalination is expensive in itself, but would SEDAPAL have the money to treat sewage? It would be ideal, like you said, if the big business in Peru helped fund sewage treatment. As you said, after all the future of their business in Peru would require this investment. A.K. You should run SEDAPAL