Andina

Peru: President highlights boost to projects aimed at guaranteeing water and sanitation

Photo: ANDINA/Presidency of the Republic of Peru

Photo: ANDINA/Presidency of the Republic of Peru

16:00 | Lima, Sep. 8.

The Peruvian Government is developing various initiatives aimed at ensuring access to potable water and sanitation, the President of the Republic Dina Boluarte affirmed on Friday.


Within this framework, the Head of State noted that the Ministry of Housing, Construction, and Sanitation in nine months managed to unlock 101 (public) works linked to these areas.

These account for 42% of the total projects that Mrs. Boluarte found stalled when she assumed the Presidency of the Republic in December 2022, she said.

The top official stated that 242 of them were in such situation at that time.

"Another 22 projects are fully reactivated," she indicated. The investment in them totals S/221 million (about US$59.73 million) and their development will benefit 71,000 people.

Likewise, the President announced that her administration will boost 47 water and sanitation projects this year.

This amount represents "double what was managed to get reactivated over the past 10 years," she noted.

The top official stated that, supported by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the implementation of the project to expand and enhance the potable water system in the city of Juliaca, Puno region, will begin soon.

It will entail an investment of S/1.5 billion (about US$405 million) which had been permanently postponed, she mentioned.

In this sense, the President underlined that water and sanitation are part of the priorities of the Public Sector Budget Bill for Fiscal Year 2024, along with health, education, social protection against emergencies, plus order and citizen security.

Call for unity

The Head of State was one of the signatories of the "National Pact: United for Water and Sanitation," promoted by the Ministry of Housing. It was signed by regional and municipal authorities, companies, and civil society representatives as well.

President Boluarte also called for fighting corruption, since that scourge harms the country's development and lowers those resources required for public works to be carried out aimed at satisfying the population's most basic needs.

(END) FGM/MVB

Published: 9/8/2023