Andina

Peru PM: Government committed to providing solutions for reconstruction

14:37 | Lima, Sep. 5.

The Peruvian Government is committed to providing integral solutions for the reconstruction of Coastal-El-Niño-damaged infrastructure, Prime Minister Cesar Villanueva affirmed Wednesday.

As is known, northern Peru was hit by Coastal El Niño floods in 2017. Said weather event was characterized by heavy rains, landslides, and floods, which destroyed infrastructure and crops, leaving many citizens homeless.

According to him, the reconstruction is a debt owed long before this calamity had struck the nation.

Each catastrophe puts the country in a reactive mode. Yet, this last event has enabled the Government to transform reaction into a prevention policy for the future, the official indicated.

Since last March —when President Martin Vizcarra took office— the Government has been boosting fund transfers with the purpose of carrying out interventions. 

Nevertheless, he said, it is necessary to make adjustments and assess the factors that cause delays. 

For that reason, it would be convenient to take forward an ad-hoc recruitment process in order to fix damaged infrastructure and reestablish services as soon as possible, among other measures. 

"The changes and improvements to the law (…) have allowed executing units to speed up the needed procedures and authorizations required to see results starting the last quarter of this year," Villanueva expressed. 

According to the Prime Minister, there used to be a centralist vision of reconstruction. However, the Government decided to redesign it and coordinate a distribution of responsibilities among local authorities and public sectors. 

Said plan has a budget worth S/25.655 billion (US$7.750 billion), divided into four components: reconstruction accounts for 72%, followed by prevention (21%), housing (5%), and capacity strengthening (2%). 

Remarks were made at Congress plenary session.

(END) VVS/CCR/DTK/MVB

Published: 9/5/2018