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Water services cannot be privatized in Peru

Living in Peru
Israel Ruiz

In an interview with RPP radio, Carlos Leytón, Peru's minister of agriculture, affirmed that water services could not be privatized in the Andean country.

He affirmed water was a very important resource for the development of society that was increasingly becoming scarce because of problems with climate change.

"What is completely clear is that there is now way to privatize the provision of water because according to the constitution water is a public good, it belongs to the State and the State administers it for domestic, agricultural and mining uses," said the minister.

He explained that the State was responsible for issuing licenses so that water could be used for projects.

On the other hand, the minister said the government was working on plans to make it possible for public and private companies to manage equipment and infrastructure used for watering and irrigating.

Leytón noted that dams and canals are currently run by government projects such as Pasto Grande, Majes and Olmos.

He explained there were proposals to make it possible to hand the administration of these assets to private companies.


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# c. schmidt says :
7 January, 2009 [ 15:46 ]

Well- this is a very good news-Here some rural report from Peruvian province-Ancash area. I already put it on several occasions in the red.Laguna Paron ubicated in parqe nacional huarascaran (zona touristica y protected area) was privatized several years ago. Alter that the Laguna seemed to be used for energy supply. A few years ago the lagune was resold ac. to local information.. Last year there were severe problems in the Caraz area with water supply and many people protested because of constant short cuts. Al Caraz was affected from constant water short cuts. Local authorities declared that this short cuts were necessary for reparation.   Ac. To information given to the people the lagune has dried out 50 percent.When I was last up the lagune was partial retaken from local people because it seemed that the new owners tried to charge for the water to local farmers.  There was public information given that lagune was sold without further studies on impact on the environment. My self ive last seen laguna paron in 1995- much more beautifull than laguna llanganuco. I ask myself how comes that not the already contaminated water from Santa river was used for energy supply instead of this lagune- but I am not an expert on this issue.

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