2023-11-23 14:40:26
While in the edge of the Cusco jungle, landslides, floods, landslides and the activation of streams due to atypical rains were recorded, the high Andean areas present droughts and water deficits, in both cases with direct consequences on thousands of families, agriculture and livestock.
Cusco has a varied climate, its territory is divided into Andean mountains (cold – temperate climate) and semi-tropical jungles (warm – humid climate). “Cusco is a varied territory, we have areas above 3,300 meters above sea level (masl), where we have a fairly pronounced water deficit in the high Andean areas and another different panorama in the La Convencion valley, this weekend “There were atypical rains with the activation of several streams that ended in different landslides and landslides that affected communication routes,” said Miguel Oscco, director of the Risk and Security Management Office of the Regional Government of Cusco.
Water levels drop in the Piuray lagoon and concern among residents grows. Photo: Andina.
According to the authorities of the National Institute of Civil Defense (Indeci), the El Niño Phenomenon will bring with it intense rains on the northern coast, however this will cause the opposite effect in the southern part of the country with the absence of precipitation or water deficit with a strong impact on more than one million inhabitants of 41 provinces and 131 districts in Puno, Cusco, Tacna, Huancavelica, Pasco, Junín, Ayacucho, Arequipa, Apurímac, causing serious damage to agriculture, livestock and plant cover.
Piuray Lagoon: Chincheros
In areas that exceed three thousand meters above sea level, the presence of sporadic rains in recent days are insufficient to recover the water flow levels in the springs and lagoons that provide this liquid element to different high Andean sectors of the imperial department. Such is the case of the Piuray Lagoon located in the district of Chinchero (Urubamba), where the water has gradually descended in its flow, moving away from the shore and leaving a plain of cracked land.
The residents maintain that according to the agreements they have with the Sanitation Service Provider Company – EPS SedaCusco, once the water level reaches the intake, the drinking water service for Cusco must automatically be closed.
“The Piuray lagoon is decreasing half a centimeter per day,” Juan Ernesto Figueroa, president of the board of EPS SedaCusco, told El Comercio, a company that has the Piuray Lagoon as one of the main sources of surface water collection. It supplies the upper and central parts of the Cusco city by 37.67%. Which means that on average the water drops 15 cm per month.
By March 2022, according to an information note from Seda Cusco, an annual production of more than 9 million cubic meters of water was recorded, equivalent to 286 liters per second, which makes the Piuray Lagoon the second source of most important life of the imperial city. “Now, historically it has dropped to almost 200 liters per second,” indicated the director of SedaCusco in a statement from a month ago.
By then, the reduction of at least 100 liters per second meant that the population would only have the supply for a period of ninety more days. Currently, the risk of the closure of Piuray and the restriction of drinking water service indefinitely is forecast, due to the shortage, which may occur in a few months, weeks or days.
Water only two hours a day
More than 10 thousand residents of Chinchero who live around the lagoon are already experiencing the consequences whose supply became only two hours long, they cannot water their crops or cover their other needs, the same ones who call for rationalization in water consumption, proper maintenance of the lagoon gates to avoid leaks. Likewise, they denounce contamination of the water mirror, non-compliance with commitments such as the water consolidation plans for the Piuray lagoon, a project to maintain the operation of actions carried out for the recovery of ecosystem services.
The low water level in the Piuray Lagoon is the result of the impact caused by climate change and the absence of significant rainfall from the El Niño Phenomenon. Leonardo Levita, president of the Piuray – Ccorimarca micro-basin, expressed to El Comercio his dissatisfaction with the lack of timely actions by the authorities to address the situation, and also stated that the agreements for the Remuneration Mechanisms for Ecosystem Services – MERESE are not being met either. , signed between SedaCusco, the District Municipality of Chinchero and the Management Committee of the Piuray – Ccorimarca Microbasin.
Recently, on November 10, the multi-sector technical panel on the situation of the Piuray lagoon was formed. Leonardo Levita asserts that the decrease in water levels has been evident for five months, since June.
“Since the month of June, the water has been decreasing. The local authorities have not responded in a timely manner, I ask the national government to take action on the matter. Chinchero only has two hours of vital water supply, before it was until noon. Years ago we had other springs, but due to the El Niño Phenomenon, global warming, those springs have dried up and we are short of supplies,” Levita said.
The situation is not new in Chinchero, in the period from 1993 to 1996 droughts were recorded where the water levels of Piuray fell up to 3 meters below the catchment key, which caused loss of hectares and several families affected by the landslide. lands, according to Leonardo Levita, at that time the mirror level of the lagoon was recovered.
“There is a risk of collapse of the land of the six communities adjacent to the lagoon, like what happened in the nineties where there were landslides, more than 100 hectares were lost, despite our protests there was never a solution for the affected community members until today. . So, knowing this situation, authorities like SedaCusco should have foreseen, built large dams, harvested water, forested, done something, but they were not interested, they just dedicated themselves to exploiting the water,” emphasized the president of the Piuray – Ccorimarca micro-basin.
Juan Ernesto Figueroa, president of the EPS SedaCusco board of directors, pointed out that the interconnection of the Piuray – Vilcanota drinking water supply systems is the main proposal to face the water deficit “We have taken various actions requesting the extension of the Emergency Declaration of the Piuray Lagoon. Spaces for dialogue were created to solve this problem, one of them is to interconnect Vilcanota with the Piura system, that is, to bring water from the Piñipampa aquifer that is in Andahuaylillas (Urcos – Quispicanchi) to the high northwestern area of Cusco, that is, to the Piuray system, we are working on that task,” he declared.
Finally, the authority assured that they have been maintaining dialogue with the residents of Chinchero for years and are evaluating strategies to rationalize water. “We are about to analyze with technicians the possibility of water rationing for the coming months with the support of the population, raising awareness among citizens to understand this situation and save water,” he said.
Last Friday, November 10, the technical table on the situation of the Piuray lagoon was installed where the leaders of the Piuray – Ccorimarca micro-basin committee, the district mayor of Chinchero, the provincial mayor of Cusco, representatives of the Regional Government of Cusco, EPS participated. SedaCusco, National Water Authority – ANA, Ombudsman’s Office, National Institute for Research in Glaciers and Mountain Ecosystems INAIGEM, National Superintendency of Sanitation Services – SUNASS and other institutions involved to generate a common proposal in favor of the sustainability of the ecosystem service hydrology provided by the Piuray lagoon. The next meeting is scheduled for December 15.
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