Environmental Expert Support Mission - United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC): Flooding Assessment Technical Report, Peru – May 2017

This Environmental Expert Support mission report by the UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) presents a summary of the mission carried out in Peru from 23 March 2017 to 14 April 14 2017. It includes the main findings, results and recommendations of the environmental expert deployed.

Executive Summary

This report summarizes the mission carried out in Peru from 23 March 2017 to 14 April 14 2017 by Maria-Helena Ramos (IRSTEA, France), an associate environmental expert deployed as part of the UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team. The expert was mobilized at the request of the UN Environment/OCHA Joint Unit (JEU) through the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM). The aim of the mission was to identify and assess secondary environment hazards and impacts following the floods and landslides in Peru.

The main findings of the expert involve the clear needs of sanitation and solid waste management for the early recovery of the population affected. The impacts on humans and natural resources include negative effects on the quality of water bodies (mainly rivers) due to pollution from muddy runoff and from wastewater and solid waste reaching the rivers.

There were also reported impacts due to inadequate and lack of hygienic disposal of domestic waste water and human excreta, as well as the disposal of non-treated water from local industries directly into water bodies. In addition, possible contamination of aquifers was identified as an impact, through infiltration or leachate flow from unregulated solid waste landfills, related to the absence of solid waste collection and disposal. Furthermore, there were impacts related to air pollution, enhanced by the burning of solid waste without previous recycling and the increased number of motorized transportation in the cities and affected areas.

Other secondary impacts were highlighted as well. These include impacts related to soil contamination, most notably in agricultural areas due to contaminated flooding/muddy waters. Possible impacts on water pollution (and, consequently, on human health) from mining activities located upstream the river catchment areas in the region of Tumbes were also highlighted. Finally, a risk of having an increase in deforestation problems as a consequence of uncontrolled and unsupervised (re)building activities in areas where several houses were destroyed was identified. This is mainly a possible impact at a long-term timeframe.

Several key recommendations emerged from this mission. First, there is need for domestic waste collection and disposal in the areas where the service was stopped or revealed to be inefficient given the flooding situation. Moreover, adequate sewer systems or human excreta disposal infrastructures must be set up to prevent people from throwing human excreta on the streets. There are needs for supervision of rebuilding activities, namely to provide orientation on (and the means for) the correct disposal of building materials from destroyed houses, and the choice of materials and building techniques to be used on new constructions to enhance resilience to future natural hazards.

In the long term, it is recommended that good land use management practices are embraced through the mapping of areas at risk of flooding and to promote development towards disasterresilient societies.

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