Water crisis is big test for Peru's president

VILLA EL SALVADOR, Peru, Nov 27: For the impoverished people living on the sandy desert fringes of Peru's capital, Lima, reliable water supplies and politicians' promises are two things they know never to rely on.

Working toilets and clean drinking water are unattainable luxuries for a third of Peru's city dwellers and two-thirds of its rural population, one of the world's highest levels for a middle-income country that boasts a fast-growing economy, huge investor interest and ample Andean water resources.

President Alan Garcia, who took office in July warning of a ''time bomb'' if Peru's social needs are not addressed, has put water at the center of his domestic agenda -- a risky strategy that could threaten his government if he fails to deliver, such is the clamor for the resource considered a basic human right.

Tensions over water in agricultural areas are a continual flash point, as farmers accuse mining, Peru's top industry, of damaging supplies and threatening livelihoods.

''There's a battle for water going on in Peru. It's one of the country's main problems and it is our job to solve it,'' said Garcia's prime minister, Jorge del Castillo.

Garcia, who is eager to make amends for his first term, from 1985 to 1990, which led Peru to economic collapse, has promised to provide drinking water to 2.5 million Peruvians by July 2009, a multimillion dollar plan that would still fall short of reaching the 7 million people without clean water.

Many are skeptical that he can meet his goal, especially given the ailing condition of Lima's state-owned water utility, Sedapal, which loses a third of its water through pipeline leaks and illegal connections.

Meanwhile, any suggestion of selling off water companies is highly unpopular after the privatization of water utilities in Argentina and Bolivia went down so badly with local people and both countries kicked out private foreign operators.

FILTHY WATER WITH FISHES

Peruvians are impatient to receive even community taps.

''Our children get sick from the filthy water that the water trucks bring. Sometimes there are fish swimming in it,'' said local community leader Julio Cesar Linares in the Villa El Salvador shantytown on the barren hillsides outside of Lima.

''It's time to take our protest to the streets and shake up the president,'' he added, pointing to a faded political campaign billboard promising piped water for all.

Many of the half of Peruvians who live on $1 a day or less have already issued their first warning to Garcia, voting his left-leaning APRA party out of office in 9 regions in local elections in mid-November.

Garcia said he wept at the result and described it as a ''stab in the heart.'' While it is unlikely to affect his ability to govern, ordinary voters say it was a chance to remind the government they are not seeing the benefits of five years of unprecedented economic growth driven by a boom in mining. ''What are our politicians if not a bunch of liars? We want to see jobs and water to drink, not nice charts and figures showing how well we're supposedly doing,'' said Carmen Quispe, a 41-year-old shop owner in Villa El Salvador.

Garcia also faces pressure from the United Nations, which is anxious to see Peru meet the Millennium Goals to halve poverty by 2015 and give more people water and sanitation.

Some 1.1 billion people worldwide do not have access to drinking water, according to UN data.

The United Nations estimates Peru could cut the death rate among young children by 60 percent with the installation of working toilets and sewerage systems across the country.

'ENTIRELY UNACCEPTABLE'

Many towns suffer the stench of endless latrines, while only 20 percent of Peru's sewerage is treated and cleaned before being pumped back into rivers and the ocean.

Three-quarters of Peru's rivers that drain into the Pacific are polluted despite being the only water source for country's desert coast, according to nongovernmental organizations.

''The current situation is entirely unacceptable. The poor must be included in water policies,'' said Paul Hunt, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, on a visit to Lima.

Garcia says he is meeting his critics with action.

Peru's basic services regulator in late November approved a 600 million dollars investment plan for Sedapal in Lima and the neighboring Callao port city for the next five years, funded by development banks, higher water tariffs for current users, government money and concessions with private companies.

''We've already started programs to reach 570,000 people in Lima who in nine months from now will have drinking water for the first time,'' Garcia said in a speech in late November.

The government plans to push an additional 550 million dollars plan for two waste water treatment plants and the construction of a tunnel to bring snowmelt from the Andes to the coast.

Garcia also aims to award at least three water concessions in central and northern Peru to private operators next year.

Some Peruvians say it sounds too familiar. ''Garcia needs to show some results. The people can't wait for water forever,'' said father-of-five Carlos Mejia as he dug a latrine.

REUTERS