Source: Columbia Water Center
by Katie Horner
4 Oct 2010 - Last week, on September 17, one man was killed and 18 others injured when police attempted to break up demonstrators protesting an irrigation project recently approved by the Peruvian government. The clash occurred 400 miles south of the country’s capital in a town called Espinar, which is facing a greatly diminished water supply as a result of the Majes-Siguas II irrigation project.
Essentially, the Majes-Siguas II project will create a new dam and water system, reallocating the water currently supplying the town of Espinar to irrigate 95,000 acres of farmland in the nearby region of Arequipa. Although the Peruvian government has guaranteed Espinar’s water supply, residents felt that the concession awarded by the state investment agency to a private consortium was granted without any consideration of the community’s vocalized concerns regarding their water security.
Water has long been a highly valued natural resource in Peru due to the population concentration in the western, extremely arid half of the country; the capital city of Lima, which has a population upwards of 8 million, lies in a desert and receives almost no rainfall, depending entirely on annual melt from the Andean glaciers. In fact, most of the country’s Pacific coast, where a vast majority of citizens reside, would be desert if not for water from the Andes.
Additionally, in recent years over 80% of the country’s power has come from hyrdo-electricity. With the Andean glaciers disappearing at an alarming pace, however, Peru is becoming one of many countries where conflict over access to and allocation of water is increasingly frequent due to climate change.
Perhaps the most distressing aspect of Peru’s water issues is the degree to which they are exacerbated by national economic policy. Peru, a perennially developing nation, has experienced significant economic growth in recent years. Sadly, however, some of the most booming economic sectors –namely, agricultural exports and copper mining– are extremely water intensive. Sadder still is that the economic benefits generated in these sectors do not seem to be reaching the general public; instead, inasmuch as agricultural and mining industries monopolize natural resources upon which many citizens depend for income and sustenance, they may actually leave the Peruvian people worse-off.
It seems, then, that Peru represents yet another round in the long-perceived fight between economic growth and environmental sustainability. To date, the nation’s greatest economic progress has relied upon extractive, ecologically degrading activities: Peru has become one of the leading copper exporting nations in recent years. Now, the government is beginning to promote the petroleum industry and, as evidenced by the Majes-Siguas project, export-oriented agriculture.
For the complete article, please see Columbia Water Center.
