Beneath the Río Piura

  • Dates
    2017 - 2017
  • Author
  • Topics Social Issues, Documentary
  • Location Piura, Peru

Beneath the Río Piura

The climatic phenomenon known as “El Niño”, hit thousands of Peruvians-mainly northerners- who during the first months of 2017 had to endure thunderstorms and torrential rains that, due to the lack of prevention and contingency, caused flooding and alluvium that left more than 40 thousand victims.

In Piura (Peru), the most affected were the inhabitants of Bajo Piura, an area that includes different towns and hamlets of the region. Probably there is no area in the north of the country with more traditionalism, characterized by the love of their land and their animals.

This harmony between nature and the citizens of Bajo Piura, was destroyed by the scarce contingency measures in the face of the natural disaster. Villages, mostly with houses made of traditional materials like mud bricks or thatched, were easy targets for the Piura River, which also devastated everything on March 27, when the flooding of the area began. For those who lost everything they have decided to start a new life in the shelters established by the government for fear that the area where they lived will flood again, others have been encouraged to return to their homes with what little they managed to rescue to rebuild with little or nothing a new life.

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