The Management of WASH Projects (CIVE5055M)

Module Leader: Dr. Danielle J. Barrington

Assignment 01: Background Data

Student ID : 201283832

November 23, 2018

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Dear College of the Wellmeaning Bank,

As previously discussed, I am sending you the information concerning the city of Lima, and the
various problems currently facing the city related to sanitation, especially in slums in the
outskirts of Lima. All the information sent is duly referenced and up to date.
Despite the effort made to compile the most accurate information possible, I have the certainty
that reality is more severe than the statistics show and far exceeds this report.
Henceforth I will detail the main challenges of the poorer population of accessing safely managed
sanitation services living in the outskirts in Lima-Peru.

 To encourage people to maintain latrines and also faecal sludge reuse needs to be

developed to increase the profitability of FSM markets.

 Offsite sanitation seems to be one alternative for the majority of slums dwellings, and
improving waste water treatment capacity should be one of the key challenges to take in
consideration.
 Improving waste water treatment capacity, is another key challenge that is necessary to
combat, in order to achieve a higher level of sanitation in Lima.

 Lack of effective implementation of land tenure policy, gives rise to informal settlements
which entails deprivation of opportunities for getting public “benefits”. Also because
people usually do not want to invest money in a place that is not owned by them.

Thank you in advance for considering these recommendations and

Kind regards,

Erick Corimanya
WASH engineer

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General Information

Lima, the capital city of Peru is located at latitude -12° 02' 35.45" S and longitude -77° 01' 41.66"
W(Latitude, 2018). The location is showed in (Figure 1-Annex 1). It is located on the Pacific
coast and in an area of high seismic activity. Metropolitan Lima includes the province of Lima
and the Constitutional Province of Callao (the ocean port). Metropolitan Lima is subdivided in
49 districts. Lima is a subtropical desert and has low-latitude arid hot climate (Köppen-Geiger
classification: BWh). The average temperature is 19.7 degrees Celsius (67.5 degrees Fahrenheit),
the total annual Precipitation averages 6.4 mm (0.3 inches) which is equivalent to 6.4 Litres/m²
(Climatemps, 2018). In metropolitan Lima there are 3 main rivers which cross the city from east
to west they are Rimac (the biggest), Chillon and Lurin (SuSanA, 2016). The capital of Peru has
an International airport named Jorge Chavez which allows Peru to communicate with the rest of
the world and receives numerous flights daily, also it connects Lima domestically with the other
24 capitals of the regions across the country. Lima suffered a cholera outbreak in 1991. In
different periods there have been large increases in cholera cases reported in Peru, notably
towards the end of 1997. The largest numbers have been reported among other regions in
metropolitan Lima (WHO, 1998). It is known that the diffusion of cholera in Peru was due to
poor water and sanitation system capacities (Taylor et al., 2015).
Housing and city planning

According to the National Survey of Population and Housing in 2017, Lima has a population of
8, 574, 974 (INEI, 2017) which represents almost a third of the country’s population (Calderón
Cockburn et al., 2015). It is a characteristic of the capital city that in residential areas the growth
has been vertical i.e. high rise flats in districts such as Miraflores, San Isidro, and San Miguel
among others. The other sector of the population, mainly poor, are concentrated in districts such
as San Juan de Lurigancho, Comas and Carabayllo. The majority of Lima’s population live
within these less affluent districts. It is characteristic of these areas to have a horizontal growth
(with some exceptions where it is possible to find multiple occupancy buildings shared between
the same families). This process of settlement and unplanned expansion makes evident the
absence of State policies aimed at developing these sectors that are generally the poorest (Figure
2-Annex 1). These people over the years have created informal human settlements, inhabiting
the slopes and peaks of the hills in the outskirts of Lima (Image 1).
Image 1. View of houses at a hill in the shanty town Nueva Esperanza on the outskirts of Lima,
Peru March 28, 2018. Picture taken March 28, 2018. REUTERS/Mariana Bazo (Reuters, 2018)

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The taking of the hills is done in an organized or individual way (Caparo, 2010). The dwellings
have been built on the slopes of the hills by the inhabitants themselves without any technical
direction on precarious stone terraces that are a danger for the inhabitants that live above and
below them. It is usually the people who live in the highest part of these hills who lack basic
services such as water and sanitation (UN-Habitat, 2003). The geography of the city of Lima is
itself a restriction for the city to expand. The capital is basically a desert strip bounded by the
Pacific Sea, the Andes and the valleys of the three main rivers that cross the city. As a result,
space for possible urban expansions is limited (Subramanian, 2018).
Poverty

The poverty in Peru has increased for the first time since 2001, reaching 21.7%, 1% more than
2016 (Reuters, 2018). Also in 2017, 375,000 Peruvians joined the ranks of the poor, which state
statistics agency INEI defines as an individual surviving on less than 338 soles ($105) per month.
Some 6.9 million Peruvians now live in poverty, 56% of whom are in urban areas in Peru, INEI
said. The last report from the most recent housing national survey shows an increase in poverty
in Lima where poverty climbed from 11% to 13.3% in a year, adding 180,000 people to this
condition (INEI, 2015). Outside of the city proper are squatter settlements, where there is a huge
portion of the city’s population. These houses are built without legal standing or any real
connection to property rights or the government as a whole. These poor slums can be unsafe, rife
with poverty and unemployment, have a lack of sanitation or electricity, and at times political
unrest. Many households in the barriadas have migrated from poorer areas of Peru in search of
economic opportunity but have been faced with a lack of legitimate living options. As Peru’s
population has expanded, and in particular as the population of Lima has steadily risen, the
government has been unable to meet housing needs for its citizens (Crino, 2016). Due to severe
cases of corruption related to the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, the previous
President of Peru resigned at the beginning of 2018. Also the political instability created in
Congress by a majority opposition to the regime, helped make it harder for investors to trust
business in Peru (Reuters, 2018). Another important factor that affects the economy of the
country is the presence of the phenomenon so called El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO),
which affects the north of Peru with heavy rains, floods and landslides. This caused
approximately 200,000 houses to be destroyed. For these reasons the Peruvian economy suffered
a reduction of 3% in its GDP (Reuters, 2017). At the same time the Ministry of Economy had to
rearrange the national budgeting, prioritizing the reconstruction of houses in the north of Peru
and giving aid to people settled in the areas of emergency (Gestion, 2018). All these problems
that presented in the year 2017 are affecting the long term plans, programs and budgets proposed
by the Ministry of Housing Construction and Sanitation (MVCS). This also affects indirectly the
inhabitants of the poorest areas of the capital city, which by these reasons will not be able to
count on basic services like water and sanitation in their homes.
Water and Sanitation access and services

Drinking Water

According to JMP, Peru as a country has a level of 50.16% of safely managed drinking water
(JMP, 2017). The provision of drinking water in Lima City is managed by the company named
Service of Drinking Water and Sewerage of Lima (SEDAPAL), a government owned utility
company. SEDAPAL is in charge of the operation, maintenance, control and development of
water and sanitation services (SuSanA, 2016). Based on data gathered in 2017 by the Peruvian
government through the National Statistical and Informatics Institute of Peru (INEI) (Figure 4-
Annex 1), 77.2% of the population in Lima has basic or safely managed water services
domestically; the amount of people supplied with drinking water by other sources represents the

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22.98% of households in the capital city. These other means of water supply are generally unsafe
due to different factors such as lack of treatment and quality monitoring among others. The
Peruvian Government, through the Ministry of Housing, Construction and Sanitation (MVCS),
in partnership with SEDAPAL and IDB have been implementing small projects in several slums
in order to increase the coverage of safely managed drinking water service (IDB, 2013). However
the investment in sanitation requires an external financial aid considering the proposed reduction
in the Peruvian budget for 2019 by 29% (Gestion, 2018).
Sanitation

SEDAPAL also provides sanitation service in metropolitan Lima. According to data collected
by INEI during the National Census in 2017 (Figure 5-Annex 1), 87.27% of the population has
sanitation services that are connected to the offsite sewerage system in Lima (INEI, 2017).
Another characteristic of sanitation in Lima is that the usage of shared toilet in low income areas
reached 11% for people not connected to the sewer system (SuSanA, 2016). Related to onsite
sanitation, in some poor slums, NGOs such as X-Runner or PEBAL are providing to people with
an Urine-Diverting Dry Toilet (UDDT) that is a new alternative for sanitation in Lima, and these
NGOs also offer emptying, transport, treatment and reuse of faecal sludge (Mujica and Sanz,
2016).
Until 2013, the wastewater was treated offsite partially in 21 Waste Water Treatment Plants
(WWTP) and for 2015 the plant Called La Taboada (considered sudamerica’s largest WWTP)
started to functioning, increasing the capacity of treatment until 75%. In 2016 was inaugurated
the WWTP called La Chira, and in this way it was possible to reach the actual figure of 92.39%
(SEDAPAL S.A., 2017). Based on the information given by SEDAPAL, La Taboada and La
Chira alone are capable of processing 83% of the wastewater produced in the capital city
(SEDAPAL S.A., 2017). In order to create the Shet Flow Diagram (SFD) it will be used the data
from INEI as it is shown in Figure 5-Annex 1. Also it will be taken the 87% of the incoming
wastewater as an Input figure used for the proportion of population of the population using offsite
sanitation. In addition 92% of wastewater in the sewer system is delivered to a centralized
treatment plant according to data exposed by SEDAPAL (SEDAPAL S.A., 2017). Finally it has
been assumed that just 75% of the wastewater delivered to the plant is effectively treated. The
result of the construction of the SFD for Lima City based on data collected from secondary
sources and the result can be seen in Figure 3-Annex 1.

Institutional arrangements for Lima City

The institutions involved in supporting and deliver water and sanitation services in Peru are:
SEDAPAL S.A which is an utility company owned by the state and it was founded in 1981 and
is in charge of delivering drinking water and sewerage service to Lima City (SuSanA, 2016).
The Ministry of Housing, Construction and Sanitation of Peru (MVCS) is responsible for water
supply and management of the sanitation sector, through The National Program of Urban
Sanitation (National Government of Peru, 2018b).
The Ministry of Environment of Peru which is responsible of overseeing the environmental
sector of Peru, with the authority to design, establish, and execute government policies
concerning the environment (National Government of Peru, 2018a).
The technical agency of the Administration of Sanitation Services (OTASS), created by MVCS
and is a public body that provides technical support to the water and Sanitation utility companies
across the country (e.g. SEDAPAL), to improve the management of their processes (OTASS,
2018). The National Superintendence of Sanitation Services (SUNASS) which is a decentralized
public body that is in charge of regulating the Water and Sanitation Sector in Peru (SUNASS,
2018). All of these entities are working together in order to deliver a water and sanitation service
for Lima’s population (Figure 6, Annex 1).
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The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) works in partnership with SEDAPAL financing
some projects of Water and Sanitation in several Lima’s slums (IDB, 2013).

Key Challenges for poor people accessing safely managed sanitation

Among the different problems of achieving safely managed sanitation or at least basic sanitation
in Lima’s slums are the lack of space and the overcrowding where householders live. Some
features such as the location of the houses (usually in the highest elevations of the hills), steep
slopes, rocky areas and the very configuration of the ground that is mostly sandy and subtracted
from the stability of the house, impede the installation of Pit Latrines as a definitive solution to
the problem of having safely managed sanitation. People in Lima’s slums do not know about
Faecal Sludge Management (FSM) and companies who give these services this is why, poor
people in Lima do not even consider on-site sanitation and FSM as a medium- to long-term
solution. Another reason why FSM is not a successful way to get improved sanitation in Lima is
that to reach households in slums as well as accessing to the pits do not make it a profitable
business for the actual providers of the service (Mujica and Sanz, 2016). Because those people
do not utilize this service, there is still a big risk of the latrines overflowing, contaminating the
environment with large quantities of excreta containing harmful pathogens and generating
offensive smells. For these reasons, in areas with no sewer systems, where people are currently
abandoning full pits in an unsafe manner, it is challenging encourage people to maintain the
latrines and also faecal sludge, reuse needs to be developed to increase the profitability of FSM
markets. Facing this situation, offsite sanitation seems to be one alternative for the majority of
slums dwellings, and improving waste water treatment capacity should be one of the key
challenges to take in consideration. Land tenancy is another challenge in this areas, because
usually people do not want to invest money in a place that is not owned by them. Usually when
the householders go to the utility company to ask for a new connection of water or sanitation,
the company says that they need to show the title of the property as a proof of the ownership of
the land. It is a policy created by the water companies in order to avoid legal issues with the real
owners of the land. Finally from the SFD (Figure 3-Annex 1) it is possible to infer that improving
waste water treatment capacity, is another key challenge that is necessary to combat, in order to
achieve a higher level of sanitation in Lima.

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 References

Andina (2008) Nuevo sismo de 5.3 grados afecta Lima en poco más de seis horas, 2008.
Available at: https://andina.pe/agencia/noticia-nuevo-sismo-53-grados-afecta-lima-poco-mas-
seis-horas-167613.aspx (Accessed: 20 November 2018).
Calderón Cockburn, J. et al. (2015) ‘On the path to progress: Improving living conditions in
Peru’s slum settlements’, (June), p. 8.
Caparo, S. C. de (2010) ‘Urban growth in peripheral areas and access to potable water and
sewerage services in metropolitan Lima 1993-2010’, p. 26.
Climatemps (2018) No Title. Available at: http://www.lima.climatemps.com/index.php
(Accessed: 18 November 2018).
Crino, J. (2016) Las Barriadas: An Informal Answer to Lima’s Housing Problems?,
PUBLICPOLICYPERU. Available at:
https://umdpolicyperu2016.wordpress.com/2016/03/24/las-barriadas-an-informal-answer-to-
limas-housing-problems/comment-page-1/ (Accessed: 19 November 2018).
Gestion (2018) ‘Ministerio de Vivienda advierte reducción en su presupuesto de inversión para
el 2019’, 10 October.
IDB (2013) Water in Peru’s Desert Capital, NEWS. Available at:
https://www.iadb.org/en/news/webstories/2013-03-22/perus-water-for-all-
program%2C10343.html (Accessed: 15 November 2018).
INEI (2015) Evolution of Monetary Poverty 2009-2015, INEI.
INEI (2017) Censos Nacionales de Poblacion y Vivienda 2017, Database query system.
Available at: http://censos2017.inei.gob.pe/redatam/ (Accessed: 16 November 2018).
JMP (2017) Estimates on the use of water, sanitation and hygiene in Peru. Available at:
https://washdata.org/data#!/per (Accessed: 17 November 2018).
Latitude (2018) COUNTRIES, Lima. Available at:
https://latitude.to/map/pe/peru/cities/lima/articles/696/lima (Accessed: 14 November 2018).
Mantyobras (2017) Estudio de Mercado Inmobiliario del Perú – Mantyobras, Mantyobras.
Available at: http://www.mantyobras.com/estudiodemercadoinmobiliario/2017/05/05/distritos-
de-lima-precio-en-dolares-del-metro-cuadrado-de-terreno-urbano/ (Accessed: 17 November
2018).
Mujica, A. and Sanz, Z. (2016) ‘Fecal Sludge Management: Diagnostics for Service Delivery
in Urban Areas: Case Study in Lima, Peru’, World Bank, (April).
National Government of Peru (2018a) Ministerio del Ambiente, El Estado. Available at:
https://www.gob.pe/minam (Accessed: 15 November 2018).
National Government of Peru (2018b) Ministry of Housing, Construction and Sanitation,
Preguntas Frecuentes. Available at: https://www.gob.pe/vivienda (Accessed: 15 November
2018).
Observatorio Urbano (2005) Urban Growth in Lima. Available at:
http://observatoriourbano.org.pe/mapoteca/ (Accessed: 20 November 2018).

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OTASS (2018) FAQ, OTASS. Available at: http://www.otass.gob.pe/ (Accessed: 12 November
2018).
Reuters (2017) Abnormal El Nino in Peru unleashes deadly downpours; more flooding seen,
World News. Lima. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-peru-floods-
idUSKBN16O2V5 (Accessed: 21 November 2018).
Reuters (2018) Peru poverty rate rises for first time in 16 years - government, World News.
Available at: https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-peru-poverty/peru-poverty-rate-rises-for-first-
time-in-16-years-government-idUKKBN1HV2KS (Accessed: 12 November 2018).
Romero, G. (2008) Archivo:Perú 0 Lima.png, Wikipedia. Available at:
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archivo:Perú_0_Lima.png (Accessed: 20 November 2018).
SEDAPAL S.A. (2017) ‘Informe De Sostenibilidad’, p. 36.
Subramanian, S. (2018) Top 10 Facts About Poverty in Lima, Peru, The Borgen Project.
Available at: https://borgenproject.org/top-10-facts-about-poverty-in-lima-peru/ (Accessed: 18
November 2018).
SUNASS (2018) Quienes somos, SUNASS. Available at:
https://www.sunass.gob.pe/websunass/index.php/sunass/quienes-somos (Accessed: 15
November 2018).
SuSanA (2016) ‘SFD Promotion Initiative Lima Peru’, 1, p. 20.
Taylor, D. L. et al. (2015) ‘The impact of water, sanitation and hygiene interventions to control
cholera: A systematic review’, PLoS ONE, 10(8), pp. 1–19. doi:
10.1371/journal.pone.0135676.
UN-Habitat (2003) The challenge of Slums. 1st edn, Global Report on Human Settlements. 1st
edn. Nairobi, Kenya: Earthscan Publications Ltd (1). doi: 10.1006/abio.1996.0254.
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http://www.who.int/csr/don/1998_02_25/en/ (Accessed: 14 November 2018).

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 Annex 01

Figures and tables

Figure 1. Location of Metropolitan Lima in the country context

(Romero, 2008) (Andina, 2008)

(Mantyobras, 2017)

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Figure 2. Urban Growth in Metropolitan Lima (Observatorio Urbano, 2005)

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Figure 3. SFD for Lima’s urban area from updated data 2017

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 Figure 4. Drinking water supply in housing in Metropolitan Lima (INEI, 2017).

%
Public network within the 77.02
house 80.00

Public network outside the

housing but within the 70.00
building
Tap for public use 60.00

Tanker truck or other 50.00

similar

Well (ground water) 40.00

30.00
Spring water

20.00
River, Ditch, Lake, lagoon 10.45
6.67
10.00
Other source 3.19 1.62
0.11 0.36 0.10 0.48

0.00
Neighbor Type of water supply in housing

Figure 5. Coverage of sanitation service in Lima province, Peru (INEI, 2017).

Number of
Type of sanitation %
households
Sewerage (toilet inside home) 1 855 610 76.74%
Sewerage (toilet outside the home, but inside the building 254 729 10.53%
or compound )
Pit Latrine 61 035 2.52%
Septic Tank/Biodigester 28 893 1.19%
Unlined Pit 174 164 7.20%
River / channel (direct discharge) 12 309 0.51%
No service 31 307 1.29%
Total 2 418 047 100.00%

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Figure 6. The government, ministries and institutions associated with sanitation
management in Peru (SuSanA, 2016).

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