The new president of Peru, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, may be the only leader currently in office to have this unusual distinction: founding an NGO committed to providing sustainable water access for those who need it most.
President Kuczynski, commonly known as PPK, founded Agua Limpia in 2007, and although he had to step down from the organisation’s board when he took office in July, he has made water provision his top priority.
Peru is “very deficient in water and sewerage. We’ve polluted rivers, lakes and the ocean”, he told the Guardian. He said Peru would be looking for international cooperation to improve access to clean water.
In his inaugural speech, the former World Bank economist said that by the time he leaves office in 2021 all Peruvians should have 24-hour access to potable water and be connected to the sewerage system.
“I have to be realistic,” he added with a caveat. “Public investment programmes take time. If we do it in seven years, it would still be a great achievement.”
With backing from the Inter-American Development Bank, Agua Limpia is currently focused on the micro-finance programme Crediagua which provides water and sanitation in rural and peri-urban areas, said representative Patricia Bautista.
Access to water for Peruvians has steadily improved in the last quarter of a century from 74.3% in 1990 to 86.7% in 2015, according to World Bank data.
Conserving watersheds, particularly those which supply Peru’s capital Lima and the arid coastal strip where more than 70% of Peruvians live, is the proposal of a key project in Kuczynski’s government plan.
Sierra Azul, a programme managed by the agriculture ministry, will focus on the upper parts of the watershed in the Andes mountains to improve hydrological regulation.
It pledges to rebuild Andean canal systems, build dams, reservoirs and filtration trenches, and support small farmers with the aim of rehabilitating 1,000 sq km of agricultural terraces known as andenes – many of which date back to the time of the Incas – as well as ensuring the irrigation of 5,000 sq km in the Andes mountains.
The programme would also seek public-private funding of $88.1m (£72m) for infrastructure projects and to boost the agriculture ministry’s budget by $29.3m.
“The president is exactly right to put water at the centre of a green growth agenda,” says Gena Gammie, associate director of the Forest Trends Water Initiative.
While it is vital to build infrastructure to pipe more water to more people, Peru should not forget green infrastructure – “critical ecosystems that [ensure] clean water arrives in the cities”, she said.
The Sierra Azul proposal bears similarities to the established restoration of ancient canal systems above Lima, which aims to help the second largest desert city (after Cairo) cope with the seasonal extremes of floods and droughts.
Peru’s national water regulator, Sunass, began a five-year programme of diverting 1% of consumer tariffs from Sedapal, the city’s water board, to ecosystem services. A further 3.8% of tariffs, approximately $89m, will be used for climate change adaptation and disaster risk mitigation.
The promotion of green infrastructure is key to the long-term provision of water for the capital city, says Fernando Momiy, president of Sunass.
“PPK has shown a commitment to preserve the sources of water. He knows that providing water to people is not just a question of grey infrastructure but also green infrastructure,” he says. “He understands, having worked for many years as an investor, that sustainability is fundamentally important. As a president he is someone who can convince business leaders that a future without water doesn’t exist. There’s no trade or industry which is sustainable without water.”
Around a third of all Peruvians – 10 million people – live in Lima, and the city is dependent on three rivers that flow from the Andes; the Rimac, Chillon and Lurin. Overall, around 4 million Peruvians lack access to safe water, and 8 million do not have adequate sanitation.
“Clean water is key to bringing down all the poverty indicators, and PPK knows this,” said Carolina Trivelli, a former minister for inclusion and social development.
However, experts agree, the implementation of public policies or investments typically can be slow in Peru. About $135m has been raised from the percentage collected on water tariffs, says Gammie, yet none of it has been spent on ecosystem services yet.
“Peru is poised to be a leader in green infrastructure in Latin America. It’s developing a whole new model which is bottom-up and user driven,” she said. “But it’s not yet been able to implement a green public investment project.”
Kuczynski’s experience in development, in the business sector as a former Wall Street banker, and his time holding several ministerial posts inspires hope that he can cut through the red tape, corruption and conflicts which often hold up public and private investment projects.
Last month, Peru’s Congress granted special legislative powers to his government allowing it to legislate by decree over a 90-day period across five strategic areas, one of which includes water and sanitation.
Momiy says: “We have a president who is focused on the issue of water and I have a lot of faith in what he can achieve in the future.”
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