Cyclone Yacu, authorities and lack of prevention culture in Peru

In Chulukanas, a town in the province of Morropon in the Piura region, a man risks his life trying to cross a crowded ravine. This is one of the few ways to get to the other side. Even other men ride motorcycle taxis, which in normal situations have no problem overtaking, but now can cause accidents or simply get swept away by the current.

One of the residents, standing in the middle of the bog, says that they were promised to build bridges to cross safely. The bridges, of course, never came. “When the president was [Martín] Vizcarra has promised to build us a bridge, but nothing has been done so far,” he told RPP Noticias. Malingas,” he clarifies. Sol-Sol, Pakcha and Malingas are settlements in the north of Peru, in Piura, as far as the state promises.

Every year the headlines are the same. Streams become active, heavy rains flood entire populations, destroy houses, take away human lives. In 2021, years after Coastal childthat hit the north of the country in 2017, the government’s recovery and compensation program has not ended. As a result of this disaster in Peru, 101 people died, 140,000 were left homeless and almost a million were injured.

In other regions, for example Liberty, which today is also suffering from the ravages of Cyclone Yacu, a mega-work was planned to prevent the re-flooding of the city of Trujillo by various streams, which, as happened in 2017, also happened in 1998. In 2022, the project was behind schedule and, in a quick search on the Reconstruction with Changes website, the latest news tells us that work has begun on the river protection project on the Chikama and Viru rivers. News from March 8, 2023.

The feeling of going in circles and repeating history every year is very strong. And the consequences for the Peruvians affected by the storm overshadow the efforts of the authorities, which, as a result of 20 (or more) years of obstruction and inability to prevent rivers and streams from overflowing, sound completely useless.

The phenomenon of being caught off guard

What happens in Piura and La Libertad happens in Lambayeque, Ancash and other regions. And in Peru there is a common thread. “Over the years, we have been suffering from childhood phenomena that always take us by surprise, and this is a historic event,” says Mercedes Ortiz Alcantara, a specialist in the psychology of emergencies and disasters. “And yet, every time it happens, we only react. And we forget about this person, we see how the authorities (be it the governor, the mayor …) call the highest authority, and then it becomes a national catastrophe”, Explain.

The first disaster, according to Ortiz Alcantara, was Cyclone Yaku. But the second calamity worries me the most: a psychosocial one. “It has to do with the disorganized population, the slum community, who have lost sight of where they built their home because they have property rights issued by the authorities that should have prohibited them from building there… so is the authorities involved or not?”

In the Lima district of San Juan de Lurigancho alone, the most populous in Lima, 100,000 people are at risk due to the rising level of the Rimac River, mayor Jesus Maldonado told RPP Noticias. To his right was Education Minister Oscar Becerra, who issued a decree suspending classes on the Peruvian coast from Tumbes to Lima and Callao. “We are developing a new prevention culture that we didn’t have,” Becerra said, adding the obvious: “That’s why even [hubo] some negative reactions, that the children will miss classes, that I have nowhere to leave my children… the reality is that we must protect our children, the main thing is life.”

But what happens when, in order to protect life – children and adults – we only put on plasters and do not attack the disease? “There are two main things,” says Mercedes Ortiz Alcantara. “First: lack of preparation. The responsible body must prepare, study, learn. What tool is Indeci currently using to get information? It is called Damage Assessment, Analysis and Needs (EDAN). certified? And I know that Indeci is making efforts at the national level, but the authorities change so quickly… what the prefects do, you have to give the political authorities the tools so that they can carry out their functions effectively.”

Finally, everything can be reduced to the topic of empathy, says Ortiz Alcantara. Something that several authorities suffer from in order to put themselves in the place of the affected Peruvians. “Empathy must be born, it is a quality that we can improve. I cannot say that authorities are 100% sympathetic, they are not. Unfortunately, there are authorities that exist only for photos, and people need to believe in their authorities, they need to believe again, because then [en la ciudadanía] lack of protection, fear, impotence… and on the other hand, there must be an authority with compassion to ensure that he will be all right.”