Providing Safe and Clean Water in Peru

Dear Supporters,

The Piuray-Ccorimarca micro basin is seeing the consequences of climate change. We are supporting local partners to adapt water resources management to climate change, in order to preserve water for future generations. Nowadays, the Piuray lagoon provides 42% of its water to the city of Cusco, which means there is a constant water flux leaving this site. Therefore, we need to preserve water resources around the lagoon, so the water levels do not decrease as fast.

Since March 15th, the Peruvian government declared a strict quarantine all over Peru due to the coronavirus pandemic. Therefore, we have not received any volunteers to continue the programs and projects on the field. Still, We still continue to monitor community members and the projects in order to keep the programs relevant until volunteers can return to Peru. 

In July 2020, our team coordinated activities to preserve the greenhouse built by our volunteers in 2019 at the Mateo Pumacahua school. The greenhouse was supposed to function during the 2020 school year. Unfortunately, as students are not attending school because of the pandemic, the principal designated maintenance staff to upkeep the greenhouse. The greenhouse is an educational space where students would learn about agricultural production and water preservation. As we continue to wait until the school year opens in 2021, we hope the school preserves the greenhouse to be able to function next year.  

In August 2020, our local partner Centro Bartolomé de las Casas requested support from us to help a local school in the community of Simatauca. The principal from this school wanted to help students to build greenhouses in their homes and continue their learning about native plants and water preservation. We provided operational funds (200 soles) in order to buy mesh. This material maintains the greenhouses functional and keeps the products safe from climate or other external factors.

Although we have not been able to have volunteers on the ground, there is a great expectation from community members and local partners to return to the Piuray-Ccorimarca micro basin. The efforts from schools to continue teaching and preserving water through greenhouses are a great example of environmental conservation. We commit through the Trust to support further activities during the following months to keep relevant activities that will preserve water and continue the fight against climate change.  

With Gratitude,

Peru Water

Dear Supporters,

On February 17th, Sandra, intern for the International Development internship for our base, organized a fundraising challenge to support our Peru Water project. All volunteers had to do a small hike to the Temple of the Moon in the city of Cusco, it took around 2 hours to achieve the objective. Although it was a small hike not all volunteers found it easy but they knew it was for a great cause. Sandra was able to fundraise £350 for future projects in order to preserve water.  

During February we were able to open English classes for children for the first time. From December to March, children are on summer break, which means they have plenty of time to attend classes and learn new topics. During our classes we implemented water conservation vocabulary and discussed this topic with children from 6 to 13 years old. It was an amazing experience to find out how much appreciation children have of their environment and how they understand what they need to do to preserve it. 

A drawing from a 6-year old boy which you can see has a mountain with a happy face, he said it was because it was raining, and the mountains are happy for that. And then he drew the lagoon with a sad face, he said it was because of the contamination. 

During February and March, we were able to complete a baseline research on families’ greenhouses in the Huaynas of Pumapata association. 20 families from this association built greenhouses with the support of the local government in 2019, as a way to diversify their agricultural production. This will also contribute to a better management of water with new crops that might be more beneficial for health and business reasons. Families are using better methods of irrigation in which water is better saved and used. Our first findings have set the foundations to start looking for organic markets and assure families are using better nutrients for their children. 

Although our operations had to pause by mid March due to coronavirus, our different activities have led an interest in children and adults in rural communities to continue to work for their water preservation. Our funds from the fundraising activity will be used once we return to work, the communities already have in mind plenty of activities in which we can maxify the preservation of water. On the other hand, we believe awareness and education are essential for the sustainability of our work, for this reason, implementing environmental issues in our English classes are important for water conservation. Finally, we will continue to conduct research in favor of these communities, having further knowledge for them on the topic of water will benefit their long run decisions. 

Thank you so much for your support!

With Gratitude,

Peru Water

Links:

• YouTube