Risks of living on the edge
Poverty and climate change in Lima

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In the outskirts of Lima

You have to drive to the far end of San Juan de Lurigancho, the largest and one of the poorest districts in Lima, to get to José Carlos Mariátegui. It is further away than the last bus stop, of the last train station, of the last section of paved road. José Carlos Mariátegui -about 90 minutes from downtown Lima in a private vehicle- is the “expansion of the expansion” of the city. The houses of the hundreds of villagers who live in this settlement extend from the skirts of the hill to the slopes, places where there is no electricity, water or sewage system. Climate change forces the people to look for ways of adapting and dealing with the new challenges on a daily basis, a task that seems unachievable in this spot practically forgotten by the authorities in the Peruvian capital.

A 3D view of Mariátegui

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EDDI

When Eddi Alvarado and his oldest daughter moved to Quebradas Verdes in 2001, the grasses covering the three hectares of that sector in José Carlos Mariátegui were over a meter high. His house, a small wooden shack, was located on the top of a mountain which he would reach by trudging through stones and muddy earth. Eddi and his neighbors had dreams of transforming the place into an ecologic site for San Juan de Lurigancho, but today there are residential buildings and grey stairways instead of green coastal hills.

Eddi was walking out of the bank when he was attacked by thieves who snatched the money he had withdrawn. As a result, he could not pay the rent for his apartment for three months. A friend offered him his house on the upper side of a hill in San Juan de Lurigancho. Eddi, who lived with his 14 year old daughter, felt he had no other option so he accepted.

When he reached José Carlos Mariátegui, Eddi built a small shack, set traps to protect himself from foxes and prepared terraces for agriculture around his house. For him, this experience would be an exercise in survival. This was much more difficult for his daughter who failed to withstand the challenge of living in Quebradas Verdes for more than six months, having to carry buckets of water every day and walking over rocks and mud. “I said to her that she could leave if she wanted to, that I would respect her decision that I did not want to drag her into my poverty. She broke my heart when she left”, he said with a faltering voice.

Eddi expreses himself respectfully but brings a sense of authority when speaking. He remembers his past as neighborhood leader and Army Cadet. He says he hates injustice and the reason he decided to stay in Quebradas Verdes was to help the families that had to pay protection fees to land traffickers. When he had made up his mind to abandon the zone because he did not want to live alone, more people came to build their homes in the area, displacing the grass and concealing the rocks. The expansion of this neighborhood even chased out the last fox.

“I said to her that she could leave if she wanted to, that I would respect her decision that I did not want to drag her into my poverty. She broke my heart when she left”

The thick fog in Quebradas Verdes is a mantle dampening every corner of each house. In summer the heat outdoors is unbearable but in winter the weather is reminiscent of the ecosystem of the coastal hills. This zone is located on a dry creek where the water once made its way, and the flow could be reactivated if heavy rain were to fall on the upper hills of the alluvial formation. Should that happen, the land and rocks would slide, sweeping away everything in their path.

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There are almost two million people who are exposed to landslides living on the slopes of the hills, according to “Lima's Adaptation and Mitigation to Climate Change Strategy”, developed by the Lima borough.

People living in certain areas of the capital are also threatened by rising rivers and coastal flooding.

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This year, winter has been harsh and long in Quebradas Verdes. Some days ago, Eddi offered himself as volunteer to reinforce the roofs of some of his neighbors’ houses. It took him a morning to reinforce these with cement and stones and he is planning to fix the electric cables that have no protection against the morning rain.

“Living in Quebrada Verde is living in permanent state of anxiety”, he adds while pointing at a rocky wall where a wooden house stands that some weeks ago lost part of its floor and now is only supported by a stick that has been pushed into soil.

Daily Life
ROSALINA

Carefully, fearfully, Rosalina Quispe climbs the stairs that will take her to her humble house among the hills above San Juan de Luringancho. She treads firmly while keeping a tight grip on the rough wooden handrail with her right hand. Some years ago, after a rainy night, she slipped on the muddy stairs and could not get up again. She was pregnant. In the past few months Rosalina has noticed the changes in the climate. It rains every three days on the average and the rainfall usually intensifies during the night.

Rosalina was 31 in 2004 when she moved to the sector of Rocas in Bellavista. Her home was located half way up the slope on one of the hills in the district. It was a small house made of straw mats, very different from the house where she now lives which is made of wood and painted blue. The roof under which she and her family live is made of corrugated iron, a material that protects them from the rain but can resist no more than a few medium size rocks. Rosalina, her three children and husband, as well as dozens of neighbors face daily risks of landslides and disease. “We are worried because the stones may fall from the hill”, she said: fate hangs by a thread directly over their heads.

At first sight Rosalina seems quiet and shy but she is actually a strong and determined person. She keeps steady eye contact with the person she talks to. She squeezes her hands and she folds her arms while she listens, and she looks anxious as time passes. She starts at 6 in the morning, when Rocas de Bellavista is still covered by morning fog and the stairs around her house are wet and muddy. She prepares breakfast for her family and, after seeing her husband and children off, takes her little Luz to school. Then she walks to the market, which takes her an hour, to buy what she needs to prepare lunch and enough food to fill the small cupboard in the living room of her house. When she returns home a couple of hours later, she continues working. Cooking, cleaning, selling, and organizing must all be done.

She was elected the community leader four years ago. Since then she divides her time between coordinating meetings and taking care of her family. Several times she has tried relinquishing her post but she feels she cannot reject her neighbors’ trust. She told us that the people of this area feel that honest work is finally being carried out after the bad experience with the former leaders. Under her management the stairs have been repaired, the handrail has been installed and the house foundations have been reinforced. She calls a meeting every Sunday to discuss the neighborhood’s needs. When there is not enough money, fund-raising activities such as selling food will be organized and the money will be dedicated to improve the buildings of the area.

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According to the United Nations Global Report on Human Settlements, the poorest sectors of a city are most likely exposed to the dangers that climate change is responsible for increasing. Studies have shown that climate variations will mainly impact those people living where the urban zones grow quickly but without planning. The impacts of climate change go beyond rising sea levels, extreme natural events or destruction of the ecosystem. They also affect human health and the quality of life. Thousands of families may be facing difficult access to basic services critical for their livelihood, pushing them to investing in poor solutions or options. The impacts of climate change tend to reinforce existing inequities.

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Rosalina walks down an alley surrounded by sharp stones and wooden walls. She crosses a stairway and goes towards the edge of an improvised path. A misstep or a slip caused by gravel, dirt or mud could result in a severe accident. A neighbor throws water from a bucket towards the pirca, an artisanal courtyard more than a meter high formed by rocks piled one on top of the other, the spaces between the rocks filled with cement, while she checks the roofs of the houses in the neighborhood cluttered with the improvised storage of stones, boxes and table remains. The pircas are used by the people of the neighborhood as a foundation to support the weight of their houses. The pircas are also useful for leveling the land, but since they don’t have iron reinforcement or a well designed structure they are not safe in the event of an earthquake or if the surrounding environment is humid.

Two winters ago a pirca collapsed and the rocks fell several meters away, landing on the roof of another house. The floor, wet from the rain and fog, gave a small tremor and collapsed. It was three in the afternoon, but fortunately the Rocas de Bellavista house was empty.

Building pircas is not easy. The people have to invest between 1.500 and 2.000 nuevos soles ($445 to $593), to hire a master builder and buy the cement and sand to construct one pirca. That does not include the 200 soles ($60) that must be paid to have the material delivered to the construction site. This sum is almost unaffordable for the families living in one of the poorest places in Lima.

“We are worried because the stones may fall from the hill”

This year Rosalina and the other leaders of this zone are getting ready to face the impacts of an El Niño. The low income families have no solution for the damages caused by extreme climate events. The people do not know what to expect, so they have organized to take action considering the worst. They have observed that the rainfall was stronger and more constant than the previous year in Rocas de Bellavista. Their main concerns are collapse of the pircas, landslides and contagious diseases.

“We get together to prepare ourselves; we have a whistle to warn that is raining and we must get out of our houses. We use these to warn each other”, she tells us while looking at the rocks that hang over her.

Liliana Miranda
Head of Cities for Life Forum
NANCY

Nancy Oré Romaní is 34 years old and has three children. She moved to this part of Lima ten years ago. She came here in search of a better future for herself and her family. Every Monday she participates in the community meetings to plan what actions should be carried out by the people from the many zones of Jose Carlos Mariategui for the improvement of their neighborhood. The first result of her determination and dedication was a small house of drywall that was given to her by the Instituto de Desarrollo Urbano - Cenca in acknowledgement of her commitment to the local efforts. Nancy remembers the beginnings at Prima 5 while supervising the latest work on her new house.

“I find the neighborhood pretty, but we have many needs”, Nancy says while walking along the dirt path that connects the upper reaches to the lowest area of the hill where she lives in Prima 5, one of Jose Carlos Mariátegui's sectors. Her neighbors greet her affectionately while on her way. It is a sincere greeting filled with gratitude for all she has done and continues to do to improve living conditions there.

Nancy is convinced of the importance of teamwork, although she is not the local leader. She says that the neighbors usually support each other in the community works; when an activity is organized, all go and help each other. There are tacit rules. When a neighbor gets sick all must collaborate to buy the medicine. In the absence of money there is plenty of solidarity.

During the first year in Prima 5 Nancy built a house with walls made of mats and a roof made of plastic. Every time there was a tremor the house was torn apart. When it rained, the roof would leak. When this happened Nancy had to cover her bed with a plastic so her newborn baby wouldn’t get wet. Then she had to throw out the water that had collected in her house.

After this experience Nancy decided to use wood and nordex to build her new house. For a long time the area where her children slept had no protection from the wind and at night the humid wind got in, exposing her children to respiratory problems such as asthma or pneumonia. “I always said to them that this would change one day”, she says, smiling as she watches the progress being made on her new house, adding that now her Little ones are happy because the roof will no longer leak.

The help has come at the right moment, when the rain and cold are growing in strength. “It didn’t rain as much before and a few times it was cold, but this year it has been extremely cold and windy. It rained during the whole week”, she explains.

"According to WHO, it is the poorest people who are most at risks from climate change"

However, rain poses a threat not only to the health of Jose Carlos Mariategui’s people but to their safety, because it weakens the pircas and the land on which their houses are built and which are not prepared to stand the rainfall or cold.

“It is actually dangerous to live here and on top of the pircas”, Nancy says. The rain falls on these improvised walls, weakening them. Nancy provided economic support to her neighbors when she decided to build a protection wall since it would provide her and her daughters with more safety.

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The Director of Foro Ciudades para la Vida, Liliana Miranda explains that people should be trained in the actions to take in case of such an emergency, and points out that it is also important that shelters and evacuation routes are in place. “One of the things that must be done here is to educate the families so they are very clear on how to protect themselves. The first thing they should know is to respond in a positive manner and protect their lives. To run not towards death but towards life”.

Nancy tells us that training workshops on lowering the risks have been provided to the people in the zone where she lives. They have been taught what actions should be taken in case of a disaster and how to improve their electrical connections. Also, they have been asked to place signposts in the area and install handrails for the stairs. Many have already started to implement these recommendations. Others have not, due to economic problems.

Changes requested are already being implemented by many people in the neighborhood. Others haven't yet, due to economical issues.

All the voices

In Jose Carlos Mariategui there are hundreds of life stories. Each person, each family, that has moved to the neck of the woods called San Juan de Luringancho did so with courage and the wish to go forward in life, providing their family with a better future and overcoming the challenges born of extreme poverty. However, today, they are faced with the threat posed by the unexpected changes in the climate. Changes causing rain, droughts, disasters and disease, and generating only one common emotion: fear. The eleven testimonies below are from the people of José Carlos Mariátegui but express the feelings of all those living in zones that are at risk.

  • Production
  • Peruvian Society for Environmental Law
  • Written by
  • Carmen Contreras
  • Joaquín Ortíz
  • Videos and Photos
  • Otto Alegre
  • Web design
  • Otto Alegre
  • Web development
  • Daniel Mariluz
  • SPDA Communications Unit
  • Jimmy Carrillo
  • Special thanks
  • CDKN, Cities for Life Forums, Cenca and Development Planning Unit, University College London
  • This report was developed with the support of Earth Journalism Network.
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