Peru not progressing with disaster prevention works as El Niño risks fade

Peru is running the risk of exposing itself to disaster by failing to invest in infrastructure. 

According to the comptroller general, some 190 projects linked to the reconstruction program, which was created in 2017 to replace damaged infrastructure after the last El Niño weather phenomenon, remain halted. These works involve combined investments of 3.08bn soles (US$827mn).  

Bodies such as the national water authority (ANA) and the national civil defense institute (Indeci) are progressing very slowly with investments from their assigned budgets, threatening to leave the population exposed to risk again.

ANA has spent 16.9% of the 413mn soles allocated to it for 2024, while Indeci spent 3.9% of the 576mn soles it has available, according to the economic transparency portal of the economy and finance ministry (MEF).

In 2023, Peru was impacted by unusually heavy rains in the north during Cyclone Yaku, which caused serious economic problems in the first half of the year due to infrastructure damage, blocked roads and restrictions on trade and transportation, among other impacts.

This year, El Niño was expected to hit the northern coast with sustained rains and the central mountains with drought, but the probabilities of serious problems have gradually declined in the first few months of the year and no major impacts have been recorded.

RECONSTRUCTION WORKS

According to the comptroller's office, the halted reconstruction works are divided into three categories (national, regional and local government), and account for 9.3% of all suspended works nationwide, which involve 2,324 projects costing a total 33.2bn soles.

The national government has 86 reconstruction works worth 1.95bn soles paralyzed, while regional governments have 23 (776mn soles) and local governments 81 (355mn soles).

As a result of the threat of El Niño impacts, ANA this year received an 89mn-sol special budget to carry out extraordinary works, but very little has been spent. According to the MEF, as of mid-May, only 6.3mn soles of that amount has been used and virtually no works have been carried out.

Indeci has a 160mn-sol budget for “preparation and response to emergencies and disasters,” but it has only used 8.8mn soles of that total as of mid-May, with slow progress in planning of works appearing to be the main stumbling block.