IWRA Executive Office

Programme

OS3e Regional and nationwide scenarios 1

abstract 457

The Water Resources of Perú and the Consequences of Climate Change

Author(s): Daniel N. Leavell

Keyword(s): Water supply, climate change, glaciers, irrigation, Lima, Perú

Article:

Poster:

Session: OS3e Regional and nationwide scenarios 1

AbstractThe tropical nations of the Andes are beginning to experience the

consequences of global climate change. Perú, which has the greatest concentration of glaciers in all of the tropics, is

dependent on runoff from its cordilleras for water for hydroelectric generation, irrigation and drinking water supply.

Rapid recession of the mountain glaciers will lead to reduced meltwater contribution to stream flow, and diminished

water availability in the near future. Huge infrastructural investments are being made to obtain water for the arid

Pacific coastal plain; home to nearly 70 % of Perú’s 28 million people.

The glaciers have yielded a detailed

record of past climate variation, and archeology has detailed the consequent impacts of mega-drought on ancient

civilizations from Ecuador to Bolivia. Today the glaciers of Andes are smaller in area than at anytime for the last

5000 years. Many of these glaciers will disappear entirely within the next 50 years. The population of Perú will

double within the same period, and at the current rate of growth Lima will have a population of 15 million within 25

-30 years. Water supply, which is barely adequate for the population today, will need to be doubled. The future

sustainability of the water resource is uncertain, as is the functionality of the major water-related infrastructural

investments being made today.

Events

The congress

Programme

Practical Infos

The Water Resources of Perú and the Consequences of Climate Change