World Environment Day was celebrated last week. A fact that until now touched me tangentially. Like everyone, I understood that we have to change our habits, that we can not squeeze the Earth and plant it with waste, that we have to start acting at different levels with immediacy … But after getting involved in a volunteer project in Peru I understand that climate change he has a face: that of the thousands of families affected by him. Fear, truncated lives, the threat of an implacable enemy that does not understand plans, desires or needs. That is climate change for me now.
Two years ago, torrential rains and floods in Peru killed 162 people. More than 1.5 million were affected and 250,000 affected. This catastrophe was the consequence of El Niño Coastal phenomenon , which occurs when marine waters exceed 25 degrees for long periods of time. As a consequence of climate change, its frequency and virulence have increased during the last years.
The town of Cura Mori, located in the northern region of Peru, one of the poorest in the country, was literally washed away by water.This is the scenario of the project in which I participated and which aims to create a new drinking water supply system for about 1,000 people. This initiative, which we developed together with Ayuda en Acción , is part of the Social Infrastructures program, in which Ferrovial volunteers collaborate in water and sanitation projects, an exceptional opportunity to develop our work in the places where it is most needed.
After a selection process, to which we presented candidates from different countries, areas and businesses, I was chosen to be part of the team of five volunteers who would travel to Peru. My mission: to collaborate in a program of awareness on best health hygiene practices. I attended several sessions in Madrid with experts in cooperation to know the country and the consequences of the floods. After a thousand and one tips, I hung up the suit to put on my boots. My trip to Peru began. The team of specialists: two road and bridge engineers; a topographer; an expert in occupational health and safety; and finally I, a journalist specialized in communication, awareness and training.
After a couple of days of acclimatization in Lima, where we draw the main lines of our action with the Ayuda en Acción team , we head north. Nervousness, curiosity, enthusiasm, commitment and desire to land accompanied me throughout the journey.Finally we arrived. We were welcomed by the city of Piura. A locality with an arid, dry climate, besieged by the desert, would become our base of operations. Its main characteristic: to be the most devastated region by El Niño Costero. It practically monopolized 70% of the country’s disaster.
Our hotel was located right across the Piura river. The same that overflowed in 2017 when its flow exceeded 3,000 cubic meters per second . Every morning I watched the calm waters of the river that had caused the flooding, surprising me how, in a matter of minutes, nature can turn our lives upside down. The water reached a height of one and a half meters in the center of the city. The scars are still visible: with clearness you can identify the marks on the walls where they arrived. But the memories of the tragedy were still alive: the meteorological information warned that a new Coastal Child could come out again, and that in this region has ceased to be such an exceptional phenomenon.
Living with clean water three times a week
Working on a cooperation project with an NGO such as Ayuda en Acción represented a challenge and an opportunity. Yes or yes you had to be up to the task, attentive to the details and 100% prepared to take advantage of every minute on the ground. The scenario was totally different from the usual one: the client was not a public administration or private organization, but rather the inhabitants of a town that do not have access to drinking water: Rosa Elvira, who accumulated water in barreños in the patio of her house; Flower that had to take shelter for months in a hotel so that her newborn child did not get dengue; or Erika who lost her animals and the lands she grew on … Our goal was not to design a highway, but to cover a basic need.
For 15 days I lived a total immersion in the project, understanding the needs, interviewing those affected and agreeing priorities with the Ayuda en Acción technical team. We alternated days of work in the office with field trips. The first day we visited Cura Mori the impact was brutal. We toured the two communities, talked with the people and knew the reality of the place: homes built with wood, matting and cane, without electricity, bathrooms, or running water. They only access water three times a week for an hour and a half. All their supply systems had been destroyed.
We were also able to visit those displaced by the consequences of climate change. During the days of torrential rains many people had to take refuge in shelters located in desert areas of the Pan-American highway. In the high zone, where the arms of the river do not reach.Today there are still more than 10,000 victims who continue to live in these camps. Many of them expect aid that may never come.
With the big photo made, including the context and the challenge that we had before us, we got down to work. The project includes demolishing the current water tank that is practically destroyed and building a new one.This will serve to provide water with the necessary force to all households. New pipelines for household connections will also be made and ecological latrines will be installed. We hunted every second between mathematical calculations, design programs and Excel sheets to put a report on the table as soon as possible.
My humanist role differed from mathematical technique. My challenge was to agree on actions related to awareness, training and education in health and hygiene. Many of the still present diseases such as Zika, Chikungunya, or Dengue fever -proliferated in 2017 over 48,000 cases- are spread due to the storage of water in buckets, not having toilets or poor hygiene practices. The best way to face this challenge has been through simple and visual communication. Workshops and radio spots have been the tools.
You get much more than you let
I am sure that our work at Cura Mori will provide additional value to accelerate the implementation of infrastructures. However, there is something in which the five volunteers agreed: you get much more than you leave.The opportunity to live a volunteer experience makes your chair move. It is a huge shock, it means a jump into the void. It transports you to a different reality from the one you live shaking the foundations on which your priorities, your worries and your certainties are based. This experience could qualify it as unique, exciting and rewarding.
I hope that the inhabitants of Cura Mori improve their quality of life thanks to this project, and that El Niño Costero does not threaten their coasts again. After my return to Madrid I have the impression that this experience translates into that I understand a small part of what used to be almost an abstract concept: climate change. I understand that its scope can be excessive and its mercy null. I understand that it is our fault and that only we have to stop it. We live in a privileged region and that is why we owe a debt to those who, by chance, find themselves where nature hits hardest. The small actions of life make the difference. The small performances in towns such as Cura Mori are able to improve the lives of thousands of people.
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