Attachments
Human Rights Council
Fifty-fourth session
11 September–6 October 2023
Agenda item 3
Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil,
political, economic, social and cultural rights,
including the right to development
Summary
The Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, Pedro Arrojo Agudo, visited Peru from 1 to 15 December 2022. The present report presents his findings and recommendations
I. Introduction
1 . Pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 51/19 of 2022, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation undertook an official visit to Peru from 1 to 15 December.
2 . During his visit, the Special Rapporteur met with representatives of the national, regional and local governments, international organizations, civil society, human rights defenders, Indigenous Peoples, campesinos and residents. The Special Rapporteur visited the Lima, Ica, Cajamarca, Puno and Loreto regions. Owing to the social and political situation related to the events of 7 December 2022, which occurred during his visit to the country, the Special Rapporteur’s visit to Piura was suspended and virtual meetings were held. These regions were selected in order to cover a diverse array of regions and issues related to the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation.
3 . The Special Rapporteur thanks the Government of Peru for its invitation and for organizing this visit. He is also grateful to the Peruvian men and women who opened the doors of their homes and their organizations to share their concerns and their daily struggle in defence of the human rights to drinking water and sanitation.
II. General context
A. Urgent challenges
4 . During his visit to Peru, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation learned first-hand about the country’s alarming hydrological vulnerability to climate change, which has been exacerbated by the prevailing extractionoriented development model, and the devastating consequences of toxic water contamination on the population.
5 . The destruction of aquifers, wetlands, bofedales (Andean wetlands) and rainforests in river headwater areas as a result of large-scale mining, and the serious harm that this causes to these areas, aggravates the impact of the disappearance of glaciers on the regulation of river flows, increasing the vulnerability of most of the population living along the Pacific coastline to the growing risks of drought and flooding.
6 . With respect to toxic contamination, according to data from the Ministry of Health, more than 10 million Peruvians (i.e. more than 31 per cent of the population), are exposed to a daily risk of contamination by heavy metals, metalloids and other toxins; devastatingly, 84 per cent of these people are children.
7 . The contamination comes from active legal and illegal mining operations and frequent oil spills, but also from 7,668 environmental liabilities linked to mining and from 3,231 hydrocarbon sector liabilities identified to date. In short, a large part of the population is being systematically poisoned, especially in rural and Indigenous communities, while climate change portends a bleak hydrological future for the country.
8 . Nevertheless, growing social awareness of these problems and the emergence of viable, albeit not simple, alternatives offer hopeful prospects.