IGP: National tsunami alert system will take a year to install

A national tsunami alert system that Peru’s government is planning to purchase will take at least a year to install, according to the chief of Peru’s Geophysical Institute, or IGP.

“The most optimistic is one year because it is not a system that you can find on a shelf, you have to wait for it to be manufactured,” IGP President Ronald Woodman told state news agency Andina. “As well, at the same time we will begin to prepare the land for its installation which will take approximately three months.”

The tsunami alert system will include six seismometers installed throughout the country that will be able to measure and report seismic waves during an earthquake. Woodman said the instruments will communicate seismic events by satellite to determine the quakes epicenter and magnitude.

“It is an integral system that includes the seismometers, reflector stations, satellite communications stations and the service of a satellite,” Woodman said.

The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami alert for Peru last Saturday after a massive magnitude-8.8 earthquake hit neighboring Chile. The epicenter of the quake occurred offshore about 200 miles south of Santiago. Chile’s government had said that more than 800 people were killed, but reduced that number to 279 on Friday, daily El Comercio reported.

Peru’s government was criticized for failing to purchase a tsunami alert system requested by the IGP after the magnitude-8 earthquake leveled the country’s southern coast in 2007. Cabinet Chief Javier Velásquez said this week the executive would authorize the transfer of 3 million soles, about $1.1 million, to the IGP to purchase the system.

President García announces national earthquake disaster prevention program

President Alan García launched a national program on Wednesday to develop an earthquake disaster prevention program in Peru following the magnitude-8.8 earthquake that hit neighboring Chile last Saturday.

García said engineers will conduct surveys of buildings at risk of collapsing during a powerful quake. The program will primarily focus on urban centers, including Peruvian capital Lima as well as Arequipa and Trujillo, state news agency Andina reported.

“We need all families to be sufficiently prepared to know what to do in the event of a large earthquake,” said García. “To know which are the safest places from a structural and anti-earthquake perspective, and to reinforce them. This won’t have a high cost but it will prepare us for any event.”

The epicenter of Saturday’s quake occurred offshore about 200 miles south of Santiago and 70 miles from Concepcion, Chile’s second largest city where widespread looting has broken out. At least 800 people were killed and 2 million displaced. The Peruvian embassy in Chile said the displaced includes 1,003 Peruvians living in Chile.

The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami alert for Chile and Peru after the earthquake and later extended it to other Pacific nations. The warning was canceled on Sunday.

The president of Peru’s Geophysical Institute, Ronald Woodman, told daily El Comercio that Peru’s current tsunami alert system is ineffective. He said the government approved financing to develop an alert system following the magnitude-8 earthquake that devastated Peru’s southern coast in 2007, however has still not provided the funds.

“In 2009, Congress’ Budget Commission understood the importance of this (tsunami) alert system and authorized the Ministry of Economy and Finance to transfer the funds to Peru’s Geophysical Institute to implement a tsunami alert system,” said Woodman. “The entire year passed and they have not provided the money and I don’t know why. They don’t give reasons.”

Seven killed by flooding in Cusco region

Seven people were killed Wednesday when heavy rainfall flooded the Quitamayo river in Pisac, a town located in the Sacred Valley in Peru’s southern Cusco department.

According to Radio Programas Peru, the people were employed by Construyendo Peru, a State-run national program which provides temporary work for the unemployed living in poverty.

The employees were cleaning the river banks when the Quitamayo – a tributary of the Vilcanota river – flooded and washed them away. The regional president of Cusco, Hugo Gonzáles, said the supervisors were negligent and the workers lacked proper protection. Read more…

Peru donates aid to Chile following magnitude 8.8 earthquake

Presidential Cabinet Chief Javier Velásquez said Monday Peru is planning to send three planes to transport health professionals and humanitarian aid to assist neighboring Chile following the massive magnitude 8.8 earthquake that struck that country early Saturday morning. The planes will also be used to repatriate Peruvians living in Chile who have been displaced. Read more…

IDB provides grant for Peru’s national waterway plan

The Inter-American Development Bank has approved an $850,000 technical cooperation grant to finance the development of a national waterway plan in Peru that will allow sustainable development and commercial use of the country’s river network, the Bank said in a statement on Wednesday.

The National Plan for Waterways Development aims to provide efficient and safe means of transportation in Peru’s rivers while improving the country’s regional integration, the IDB said. Read more…

Environment Minister: Informal mining costs Madre de Dios millions in royalties

Peru’s Environment Minister, Antonio Brack, said Friday the Amazon’s Madre de Dios department is losing millions of dollars in royalties each year due to informal mining. The mining is also causing heavy metal contamination in the region’s waterways.

Brack said that calculations by state tax regulator Sunat show that Madre de Dios should have collected about 50 million soles, or $17 million, in mining royalties last year. In 2009, however, its mining royalties were only 42,000 soles, about $14,000, state news agency Andina reported. Read more…

Spanish-Peruvian company to invest $280 million in wind power stations

The general manager of Iberoperuana Inversiones, Juan Coronado, said Monday the Spanish-Peruvian consortium is planning to invest $280 million to build two wind power stations in northern Peru, state news agency Andina reported.

Coronado said they are to invest $210 million in the construction of a wind farm in Cupisnique, located about 55 miles north of Trujillo in the La Libertad department, which will produce 80 megawatts of energy. Read more…

Government suspends Minera Afrodita’s activities in northern Peru

Peru’s government said Wednesday it has indefinitely suspended the exploration activities of a small copper and gold miner in the Cordillera del Cóndor, the dense cloud forest mountain range that straddles the Peru – Ecuador border.

Energy and mines regulator Osinergmin suspended Minera Afrodita’s operations after the mining company was unable to accredit its ownership of the concession rights where it is exploring, Energy and Mines minister Pedro Sánchez Gamarra said in a statement. Read more…

Study: Peru Amazon entering into second energy boom

A new study examining hydrocarbon activities in Peru’s Amazon rainforest over the past 40 years says the region is in the early stages of a second energy boom that could have major environmental and social impacts.

The study, published in the Environmental Research Letters journal, says 42 of the 52 active Amazon hydrocarbon concessions were awarded between 2005 and 2009.  State hydrocarbons promotion agency Perupetro reportedly signed 13 new Amazonian contracts in both 2005 and 2006, setting single year contract signing records. Read more…

Machu Picchu to reopen on April 1

Peru’s Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism, Martín Pérez, said Tuesday Machu Picchu will reopen to tourists on Apr. 1, state news agency Andina reported.

Tourism activity to Machu Picchu was suspended last week following torrential rainfall, mudslides and flooding that blocked the railway to the UNESCO World Heritage Site and stranded some 2,000 tourists at Machu Picchu Pueblo – the town below the citadel. Read more…

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