Floods in Peru are just the latest blow to its economy

Time for a clean-up

MORE than 75 people have been killed, and more than 100,000 left homeless, as Peru’s coast has been battered by the strongest rains seen in decades. Millions are without running water; more than 2,000km of roads and at least 175 bridges have been destroyed. The devastation has been caused by a “coastal El Niño”, a localised version of the global El Niño weather cycle that brings warm currents from Australia to the Pacific coast of the Americas. Peru had been braced for a big El Niño in 2016, but it did not arrive. It was not expecting a coastal version, especially of such magnitude.

But even if it had known what was coming, it would not have been prepared. “This is not a natural disaster, but a natural phenomenon that has led to disaster because of the informal way this country has developed,” says Gilberto Romero, the head of the Centre for Disaster Research and Prevention, a local NGO. “We need to re-think and re-engineer our cities.”

Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, the newish president, has pledged to work with mayors to stop homes from being rebuilt in vulnerable areas, and wants hydrological studies along...Continue reading

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