Peru Declares Emergency In Ica Following Quake

Peru’s government on Thursday declared an emergency in the country’s southern Ica region due to the extensive damage caused by an earthquake earlier in the week, according to daily El Comercio.

Cabinet Chief Oscar Valdes said that the government will provide 2 million soles (approximately $750,000) for works in the area affected by the quake.

Valdes said the quake caused the collapse of Ica’s sewage system, and announced Read more…

Back from Europe, Humala Visits Quake-Hit Ica

President Ollanta Humala, back from a trip to Europe, visited the city of Ica on Tuesday to inspect damage from a recent earthquake.

Early Monday morning, Ica was hit by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake. The quake didn’t cause any major damage, but more than 100 people were injured, according to the government.

In August 2007,, the department of Ica was the site of a magnitude 8 earthquake that rocked the region, resulting in Read more…

Activities Return To Normal In Ica Following 6.3 Quake

Activity returned to normal on Monday following a magnitude 6.3 earthquake that rattled Peru’s south coast Ica region, daily El Comercio reported.

The earthquake occurred at 12:10 a.m. on Monday and its epicenter was 47 kilometers southwest of the city of Ica. Many of the residents spent the night in the street following the quake.

The quake was felt in Lima, Ayacucho, Huancavelica and Junin regions, the Read more…

Over 34,000 Areas at Risk from Natural Events

More than 34,000 populated areas in Peru are located in areas of risk due to natural events, state news agency Andina reported.

A report presented by lawmaker Marco Falconi said that disasters between 2003 and 2009 caused the deaths of 1,387 people; 4,050 injuries; and 800,762 people left without homes.

Falconi, of ex-President Toledo’s Peru Posible party, said the total number of people affected by natural disasters was 6.17 million during the six-year period. Read more…

Congress Holds First Decentralized Session In Ica

Peruvian legislators on Thursday held the first decentralized session in the southern Ica region, where it approved the creation of a commission to investigate irregularities in Ica’s reconstruction work following the massive earthquake in August 2007.

The motion was unanimously approved and gives the commission six months to investigate the issue, daily El Comercio reported.

According to the report, the commission will take into consideration a previous congressional investigation, information received from local residents during Read more…

Quake-hit Pisco to get priority in government housing program

Peru’s Cabinet Chief Salomon Lerner Ghitis said Thursday that the southern city of Pisco, which was widely damaged by a massive 2007 earthquake, will receive preference in government housing programs.

“The lower income population affected in this city and the others affected by the quake in 2007 will have preference in the state housing programs,” Lerner Ghitis said during his address to Congress, according to state news agency Andina.

Lerner Ghitis said that the housing program Nuestras Ciudades, or Our Cities, will include the participation of the three levels of government in Peru, civil society and private sector. Read more…

Magnitude 7.0 earthquake hits Peru’s central jungle

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit Peru’s central jungle region on Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The quake was located near the jungle city of Pucallpa, located about 370 miles from Lima and close to Peru’s border with Brazil. The USGS said the quake’s depth was 145 kilometers, or about 90.2 miles, which limited the damage.

The head of Peru’s National Civil Defense Institute, Alfredo Murgueytio, said there were no major injuries but that according to early reports two people in Junin Read more…

Chincha official says 15% of province reconstructed since 2007 quake

An official from Peru’s Chincha province, 200 kms south of Lima in the Ica region, say that about 15% of the 30,000 houses damaged in the massive earthquake in 2007 have been reconstructed.

“On the topic of housing, we have a very high deficit pending,” state news agency Andina reported Chincha Mayor Lucio Juarez as saying. “It creates a terrible feeling to see so many families living with a house facade but with nothing behind it. They don’t get rid of the front because it is the only thing that protects them.” Read more…

Armed Forces ready to reconstruct quake-hit South, says Defense Minister

The Armed Forces are ready to begin work on reconstructing cities in southern Peru where a major earthquake in August 2007 caused widespread damage to infrastructure and killed hundreds of people, said Defense Minister Daniel Mora.

“This work will bring us even closer to the citizenry,” state news agency Andina reported Mora as saying.

The magnitude-8 quake, which lasted two minutes, destroyed three-quarters of Pisco’s city center, and serious damages were also sustained in the broader area of Chincha and Ica, Read more…

IADB to provide $200 million for sustainable development projects in 2011

The Washington D.C.-based Inter-American Development Bank will provide Peru $200 million this year to finance sustainable development projects, country representative Fidel Jaramillo said.

“With this [$200 million] we are going to finance projects like the new sustainable energy matrix, adaptation and mitigation to climate change, the management of natural disasters, and the use of water,” Jarmillo said.

The IADB has been financing these types of development projects in Peru for the past two years and expects to continue its work for at least another two, state news agency Andina reported.

Jarmillo said the IADB has been supporting projects on Peru’s main river basins in order to better managed the resource. Water is an important issue particularly on Peru’s arid coastal region. It is one of the main reasons behind social conflicts between industry and communities.

“As well, we are supporting reforms for policy against climate change even though we haven’t yet calculated how much is needed to fight against climate change because there are topics that are related to adaptation and mitigation,” he said.

Jaramillo made the comments during the presentation of the IADB’s Sustainability Report for 2010, which presented the opportunities and challenges for sustainability in Latin America and the Caribbean.

According to the report, the region saw an improvement last year in its capacity to resolve its sustainability problems.

In the long term, the report points to the extreme climate challenges that the region will face as a result of climate change and its risk to water supply and biodiversity.

In 2010, the IADB provided about $3.60 billion to the region for projects on environmental and energy sustainability and climate change.

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