Peru's Sedapal struggling to recover from flooding
Lima's state water company Sedapal faces a bill of at least 100mn soles (US$30mn) to repair damage caused to its infrastructure by the country's worst flooding in half a century.
Torrential rainfall and raging rivers have damaged Sedapal's Huachipa potable water plant and San Antonio de Carapongo sewerage treatment facility, among other assets, CEO Rudecindo Vega said. The company's Huachipa-Comas potable water pipeline, and 24 water wells, also sustained damage, he added.
"We've calculated 100mn soles to date in Lima, but we have yet to calculate infrastructure damage in the upper reaches of the watershed, where it's still raining," Vega told reporters in Lima. "We have 70m of breaks in a major pipeline, and that will take weeks to fix."
Sedapal, which had calculated infrastructure investment at 1.5bn soles this year, may have to add to that figure, Vega said.
Floods and landslides unleashed by the El Niño phenomenon have claimed nearly a hundred lives and left nearly 125,000 homeless in Peru to date, forcing Sedapal to close its La Atarjea water treatment plant earlier this month, leaving Lima without water for five days.
The rain season continued to wreak havoc elsewhere in the country, slowing the government's efforts to drain and pump water from half a dozen flooded coastal cities. Piura, the hardest hit regions, will take at least 30 days to fully restore basic services such as electricity and potable water, cabinet chief Fernando Zavala said.
Thousands of Peruvians have been evacuated by helicopters from flooded areas in and around the city of Piura after the Piura river burst its banks, prompting the government to declare a state of emergency. The city was also flooded during the 1998 El Niño phenomenon.
"We've organized a plan and have a goal: reach normality in 30 days to continue moving ahead with reconstruction," Zavala told reporters in broadcast comments.
RECONSTRUCTION
New legislation aimed at simplifying Peru's public-private partnership (PPP) system and making it more transparent will help accelerate reconstruction efforts, according to Peru's investment promotion agency ProInversión.
ProInversión has lined up US$15.3bn in 31 PPP infrastructure projects including transport, energy, water, real estate, telecommunications and health initiatives over the next two years, the agency's director Alvaro Quijandría said.
"Reconstruction in itself is an opportunity to develop better-designed projects," Quijandría told state news agency Andina. "It would be favorable to develop these initiatives with the new PPP framework, which is much faster."
President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who has deployed his entire 19 member cabinet to emergency zones to oversee shelter provision and medical services for those affected and distribution of humanitarian aid, said work will get underway on a dyke along the Piura river as the water flow rate has dropped to 1,500m3/s from 3,000m3/s.
"We're working to bring help, accommodate people in a safe area with a roof and food. Then we'll start the stage of evaluation of damage," Kuczynski said in a statement posted on the website of the president's office. "There are good signs to start partial reconstruction and then total reconstruction."
The government will have a more detailed reconstruction plan by August and get a full rebuilding drive underway by January 2018, housing and construction minister Edmer Trujillo told reporters.
The government earlier this month announced a 5.5bn-sol economic stimulus program which will involve infrastructure nationwide. Flooding to date has destroyed at least 159 bridges and 1,900km of roads and has left half a dozen towns under water, according to the government's emergency control center Coen.
The Andean region was recovering from the effects of the La Niña phenomenon, where cooler ocean temperatures caused drought in the highlands. The delayed rain season has also caused widespread flooding in Ecuador, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela and Argentina this year.
Subscribe to the leading business intelligence platform in Latin America with different tools for Providers, Contractors, Operators, Government, Legal, Financial and Insurance industries.
News in: Water & Waste (Peru)
Peru to invest US$470mn in Lima waterworks this year
The 2022 plan includes 10 projects, of which eight will be carried out by local water utility Sedapal.
Spotlight: Sedapal’s US$500mn investment plan
As part of its 2021-2026 investment plan, Lima's water utility plans to build a US$130mn wastewater treatment plant, partially financed by the IDB.
Subscribe to Latin America’s most trusted business intelligence platform.
Other projects in: Water & Waste (Peru)
Get critical information about thousands of Water & Waste projects in Latin America: what stages they're in, capex, related companies, contacts and more.
- Project: Quellaveco
- Current stage:
- Updated:
6 months ago
- Project: Pucará hydro plant
- Current stage:
- Updated:
6 months ago
- Project: Execution of work: improvement of the improved irrigation canal, district of pachacamac - lima - lima, with cui 2333147
- Current stage:
- Updated:
7 months ago
- Project: Execution of the installation work of the stormwater sewage system, aahh bella luz, district of San Juan Bautista, Maynas, Loreto with cui code 2302223
- Current stage:
- Updated:
7 months ago
Other companies in: Water & Waste (Peru)
Get critical information about thousands of Water & Waste companies in Latin America: their projects, contacts, shareholders, related news and more.
- Company: Gobierno Regional de Cajamarca
-
Peru's Cajamarca regional government is led by a regional council and composed of regional offices, through which it carries out programs and projects, such as expanding and upg...
- Company: Gobierno Regional de Arequipa
-
The Regional Government of Arequipa, in charge of the Regional Governor, is the local administration aimed at fostering regional development, by promoting public and private inv...
- Company: Consorcio Acciona Agua - San Martín
- Company: Consorcio Aqua Lima
- Company: Consorcio Integral y Asesores
- Company: Dirección General de Salud Ambiental
- Company: Consorcio Supervisor Chimbote