Providing water to shanty towns in Lima

Carmen Yolanda Azososa Pino [Simon Rawles]

CAFOD has funded a water project run by the Missionary Society of St Columban to provide pumps and piping to supply water to homes in San Juan de Lurigancho, Lima's most recently built shanty town.

It never rains in Lima. There is a desert-like climate. The writing on the water towers throughout Lima testifies to this: “Water is life, use only what you need”.

San Juan de Lurigancho is in a river valley on the far outskirts of the city that climbs up towards the Andes. The higher up the valley you go, the harder it is to get water.

On one side of the community two tanks have been installed and two pumps to get the water up to the top of the shantytown. Both pumps were paid for by CAFOD. They serve 80 homes.

The community brought the sand and bricks up the hill, working in a human chain. Local resident, Pedro Elias Jacinto Espinoza, remembers setting up the water tank “We were like ants passing things in a human chain up the hill,” he says.

“It’s much better now we don’t have to carry water all the way up every day with buckets.” says Carmen Yolanda Azososa Pino. “ Now we have enough water in our homes. Thank God.

“Single mothers washing clothes would have to bring all the water up here or take all the clothes down to wash and then carry them back up again.”

Paulina Diaz Paredes [Simon Rawles]

“I have a baby that’s just 12-days old,” says Paulina Diaz Paredes. “While I was pregnant I had to walk all the way up the hill with water. I live in the highest plot. I had to collect water every day.”

A similar project is near completion on the other side of the hill. During our visit in December 2004 the water supply only reached half way up the hill. Now a second tank has been installed at the top.

The new water supply has made a huge difference to people’s lives.

Water is life

When people first began living there, there were no paths, no roads, no light and no water. Father Ned is one of the Columban fathers working in San Juan de Lurigancho to improve the living conditions.

Pedro Elias Jacinto Espinoza explains:“We had nothing. The priest has helped us with light and water. Now we have light, before we used a car battery. It lasted two days and sometimes would pack up in the middle of an interesting film and we’d have to change it.

“When we first moved here if something bad happened, even if a chicken went missing, the others living at the bottom of the hill blamed us. But the community went on growing. I have a shop now. Before I worked, but it was not secure,” says Pedro.

Making a new start

Incomers to Lima build houses where they can. They start with reed matting and eventually may make their houses of brick, building one storey at a time. Some houses are improvised from whatever people can find. The further up the hill, the more temporary the accommodation as newcomers arrive.

Alejandro and his family [Simon Rawles]

Father Ned helped Alejandro Vidalon Machuca and his family get the site for their home. They came to Lima from Huancavelica, one of the areas that suffered from the political violence between the Shining Path guerrilla movement and the government forces, which lasted from the 1980s to 2000.

Alejandro has been working in Lima for 22 years. He could only visit his family twice a year. The rest of the family moved to Lima three years ago and rented a room in another shanty town.

Alejandro explains “I was a farmer growing cereal, wheat, and potatoes but we didn’t get very good harvests. We moved to this spot seven months ago. It’s better here because we have our own home.” Now he sharpens knives for a living.

Being amongst the newest arrivals, Alejandro and his family live right at the top of the hill in San Juan de Lurigancho.

"Every day I carry two huge barrels of water up the hill, " says Alejandro. "They weigh a lot even without water. I have to collect the water because they are too heavy for my wife or children to carry. My back aches from the weight.

“We still don’t have a sewage system. It doesn’t reach up to the top of the hill to the newer houses. Our toilet is just a hole in the ground that we have to clean out ourselves. At least we will soon have water in our home. By next week the water will be pumped to the houses right at the top of the hill.”

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