Brutal deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon [Featured]

Forests are converted into deserts due to the advance of informal mining that illegally extracts gold. Regular buying and selling of mercury is demanded by locals, who use it for the extraction of the precious metal.

November 17, 2009 | Nature, News

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Land grabs by technicality in the Amazon

Indigenous Amazonians risk loosing their ancestral lands by way of a Government slight-of-hand which grants concessions and exploration rights to wealthy foreign energy companies.
One of these, US oil company Hunt Oil, which has been granted rights to one of the world’s last untouched areas of cloud forest with unsurpassed levels of bio-diversity, is now demonstrating how this [...]

October 28, 2009 | News, Opinion

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Lima’s sewage pollutes the ocean [Featured]

Lima, with a population of 9 million people, is home to one-third of Peru’s population. But the coastal city does not have a single sewage treatment facility. With no safe place for raw sewage to go, most of it ends up in the ocean.

Almost as big as the pollution itself, is the apathy that seems to exist towards the problem. Until last year, Peru has never had an environment ministry.

Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo reports on the realities that make going to the beach in Lima a dangerous proposition.

May 14, 2009 | News

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Less than 13% of Arequipa vehicles meet emissions limits

Arequipa may be all kinds of beautiful, but their is an obvious problem with the quality of life there and you only need to step onto a busy street to see what it is.

Random inspections carried out of Arequipa’s vehicles found the less the 13% of them met limits set on carbon monoxide emissions.

April 22, 2009 | News

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A River Cries Out: The Rimac River Project [Featured]

In the old days, they called it El Río Hablador, The River That Speaks.

During the winter rains in the Andes, the water would rush down so forcefully the sound of the constant grinding of the giant boulders that line the riverbed seemed to make a noise akin to talking.

I think that still happens at the height of the rainy season in the Andes; but, mostly when I think of the Rimac in its current state, I just imagine a polluted, uncared-for, and abandoned river.

As the Rimac approaches, and traverses Lima, it is akin to a giant garbage disposal system.

April 16, 2009 | Culture & History, Opinion

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Decontamination of Rimac River to cost more than $100 million

The Peruvian Times, read here, is reporting that a cleanup of the polluted Rímac river would cost upwards of $100 dollars and take 5 years.

A thorough and complete cleanup of Peru’s heavily polluted Rimac River could potentially cost more than $100 million and take up to five years, said Chaclacayo mayor and President of the Rimac River Mayors’ Association, Alfredo Valcárcel Cahen.

April 16, 2009 | News

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Could the streets of Lima be on the verge of changing forever?

The year is 2010. It’s, let’s say, December, and the start of summer in the southern hemisphere and in the city of Lima.

Stepping out into the street, a family decides they will walk the 20 minutes to the Costa Verde, taking time to enjoy the city’s clean fresh air. Others live further away of course, so the streets are as full of traffic, including buses and taxis, as always. But apart from the gentle hum of the motors – many of which belong to hybrid cars – the streets are quiet. The combis weave in and out of the hybrids, in a rush to reach the next authorised bus stop to pick up and drop off passengers.

For the first time, such a future in Lima is entirely plausible.

February 17, 2009 | News, Opinion

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Plastic banned at Machu Picchu

Anyone with any sense hates plastic bottles – the non-biodegradable waste they cause and the blighting of the landscape when people carelessly throw them away. And you would think people visiting world famous and historic sites such as Machu Picchu would have more respect – but no, one of the first things I noticed when I visited were dozens of plastic bottles on the way up, and yet more scattered around the ruins.

January 28, 2009 | News

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La Oroya: House of Lead: A story of Greed

International attention comes and goes, but La Oroya is in the spotlight once more as CNN begins its coverage of the town where 99% of the population is heavily lead-poisoned by up to three times the highest healthy limit, have strange rashes, stomach pains, are intellectually stunted, covered in layers of toxic dust of which 1,000 tonnes is omited per day, and where children are dying regularly. Living in this town means you are 2000 times more likely to die of cancer… that’s if you are even born. Should you not be miscarried, you are born pre-lead-poisoned and already risk not growing up at all.

December 16, 2008 | News, Opinion

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Peru to move a city – Cerro de Pasco picks up and leaves

Time to update those maps of Peru’s Andean Pasco region, because the regional capital Cerro de Pasco is set to move 35km down the road. High levels of pollution are blamed.

After intense and at times colourful debate, the population of Cerro del Pasco and its authorities have approved the immediate relocation of their city. Although not all entirely happy, residents have accepted the decision.

December 4, 2008 | News

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Lima’s toxic smog of death is now 11.77% less deadly

Air quality in Lima has never been good, mostly thanks to the high humidity and fog. But when dictator Alberto Fujimori passed laws to allow second-hand ancient, deadly and heavily polluting cars to be imported from abroad, air quality took a massive hit. Though it never rains, grey clouds took on a hint of black, and a thick soot blanketed the city.

November 27, 2008 | Lima City Guide, News, Opinion

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30,000 illegal mines polute Lake Titicaca

President of the Autonomous Authority of Lake Titicaca, Julián Barra, said today that more than 30 thousand informal unregistered small scale mining operations near the world’s highest navigable lake are causing terrible pollution to both it an surrounding rivers.

September 22, 2008 | News

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