Living in Peru : your everyday companion

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz


Antonio Brack announced this weekend that 75 percent of the country's raw sewage and contaminated liquids are dumped into the ocean or rivers. He requested that municipalities immediately begin addressing this urgent matter.

Brack was sworn in on Friday afternoon as Peru's new Minister of the Environment during the EU-LAC summit, a summit that was focused on protecting the environment and reducing poverty.

The new minister affirmed he would begin working with Peru's Housing Ministry to develop strategies that would stop the contamination and pollution of the Andean country's oceans and rivers.

In statements made on television programs and radio stations, Brack assured that treating 100 percent of the country's wastewater would "take some time".

He explained that by 2010 countries such as Chile would only be dumping treated water into the ocean.

Brack criticized the way Peru was using potable water, claiming that the coast did not produce any but was using, contaminating and dumping it.

"1,000 liters of potable water in this country cost less than one beer, that is bad. That's why we waste it," said Minster Brack.