El niño aftermath

© Diego Oliver - One fine line divides the recent past from the present.

© Diego Oliver - Pets where not a priority when escaping from a wave that came from no where in the middle of the night.

© Diego Oliver - Image from the El niño aftermath photography project

Dates

2017 - 2017
Author

Diego Oliver
Topics Portrait, Social Issues, Documentary
Location Peru

The year 2017 was catastrophic for Peru. The northern coast beared with maybe the strongest flooding in the last 50 years. Thousand where displaced, lost their homes, their animals, and even family members. They had to start over.

The rains in the nearby highlands of the northern Peruvian coast during El Niño phenomena didn't stop for weeks. The river dam collapsed from one moment to another and thousands of cubic meters of water flowed all the way to agricultural areas. Thousands of hectares of crops where flooded, houses were swept, the animals drowned. The aftermath begun with thousands of displaced that found shelter on the few small hills where the water couldn't reach them. There was no food, no shadow, no clothes, no water, no toys. It all had disappeared in a matter of hours. The northern region of Peru had to start over from zero.

One fine line divides the recent past from the present.

Pets where not a priority when escaping from a wave that came from no where in the middle of the night.

Ximena Sandoval Adanaqué, three months old, escaped in the arms of her grandmother who run to a nearby slope while the water swept her house. She standed there, with a hundred others, in the dark, with nothing, waiting anxiously for the day to come to see exactly what had happened.

At Bajo Narihualá the whole town located in an improvised camp in the land owned by Agustín Sosa Cobañas (71). Communal meals where cooked for the displaced with the donations that came from all over the country.

Andrés Vilchez Vilchez (65) has 5 sons. He now lives in a precarious hut build with quilts to shadow his family.

Drying mattresses are outside every house that stood up to the force of the current.

Animals are the last priority when food and water arrives even when these represent one of the most valuable possessions.

Water is scarce. Tanker trucks arrive to the affected areas and displaced fill as many buckets as they can. The trucks must come at least once a day to keep the people hydrated since shadow has become a privilege under the hot temperatures.

Agustín Sosa Cobañas (71) house remained intact since it was a few meters above the flood. He now hosts up to 500 people in it.

Orlando Timaná Morales (52) kept safe his geese and chickens in his baby girl room. He couldn't safe the porks.

Dyron Daniel Chunga Inga (8), shows his new house and clothes. The tent was given by the army and cloths where donated. He doesn´t matter wearing someone else´s clothes. They are "new".

Diana Karina Tesen Aquino has come back to her home to see whats is left. The furniture, the fridge and the kitchen are gone. The mattresses are useless.

Elmer Estrada (35) feed his months old baby. "The water took all our belongings. My mobile phone is probably the only thing I have because i took it with me".

María Digna Aquino Sosa and her daughter.

No more TV.

El niño aftermath by Diego Oliver

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