Science of the Total Environment 605–606 (2017) 246–250

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Science of the Total Environment

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scitotenv

Natural disasters and climate change call for the urgent decentralization
of urban water systems
Ian Vázquez-Rowe a,⁎, Ramzy Kahhat a, Yago Lorenzo-Toja b,c
a
Peruvian LCA Network, Department of Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 1801 Avenida Universitaria, San Miguel, Lima 32, Peru
b
Department of Chemical Engineering, Institute of Technology, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain
c
Cetaqua, Water Technology Centre, Emprendia Building, Campus Vida, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Lima is gradually upgrading its urban water cycle to comply with improved sanitation standards, with the aim of
Received 11 May 2017 treating the entire flow of water and wastewater that it creates. However, this paper examines the basic charac-
Received in revised form 11 June 2017 teristics of the main treatment systems that are currently in operation in the Peruvian capital, highlighting the
Accepted 25 June 2017
myopic and inefficient nature of these investments. It digs deep in the debate between centralized and
Available online xxxx
decentralized water management systems in a city that is exposed to numerous hydro-meteorological and geo-
Editor: D. Barcelo logical hazards. Previous errors that have occurred in the developed world throughout the evolution process of
the urban water cycle should be taken into consideration prior to any infrastructure development in emerging
Keywords: countries. For the particular case of Lima, special emphasis should be given to the resilience of its urban water
Peru system in order to guarantee rapid recovery after disaster events.
Urban water cycle © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Vulnerability
Wastewater treatment
Water stress

Devastating downpours, caused by abnormally high ocean tempera-
tures along most of Peru's Pacific coastline in February and March 2017,
have left an aftermath of destruction in many areas of coastal Peru (The
Guardian, 2017). The Lima-Callao Metropolitan area, henceforth re-
ferred to as Lima, the second driest capital city in the world, has also
been badly hit by extreme precipitation in the Andean highlands, suffer-
ing from burst river banks and mudslides, locally known as huaicos. A
broad array of infrastructure in Lima was affected by these extreme
weather conditions, including collapsed bridges, as well as homes and
entire streets close to the banks of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers
that cross the city. For example, the Chillón river presented an average
monthly flow 93% higher than the historic mean (SENAMHI, 2017).
However, probably the most alarming feature of the flooding was the
fact that the main drinking water plant of the city was at a halt for sev-
eral days due to its inability to capture the water flow of the river Rímac,
which presented turbidity peaks of up to 98,000 NTU (Perú21, 2017).
Most of the city's activities were seriously affected between the 16th
and 19th of March due to the collapse of water distribution systems
and videos of citizens queuing for water from municipal tank trucks
went viral on social networks (Fig. 1).
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: ian.vazquez@pucp.pe (I. Vázquez-Rowe).
This critical climatic event demonstrated Lima is vulnerable not only
to major earthquake and tsunami events (Mitchell, 1999), like those
which have hit the city in the past, but also to extreme weather condi-
tions, hindering its capability to obtain an ever-greater amount of
water for its ever-growing population. Other megacities throughout
the world face similar risks linked to their exposure to the effects of cli-
mate change, Mexico City and Karachi being two clear examples (Li et
al., 2015a; New York Times, 2017a; The Guardian, 2016).
In this context, Lima currently relies on the river Rímac for roughly
80% of its total water production for commercial, industrial and residen-
tial purposes. The remaining fraction arrives from the river Chillón
(roughly 8%) and different wells scattered across the city that pump
water from aquifers. However, it should be noted that an important por-
tion of water extracted from the Rímac does not correspond to water
from the Pacific drainage basin, but to that of the river Mantaro, a sub-
affluent of the Amazon. This implies that ca. 28% of annual water actual-
ly corresponds to the Atlantic drainage area, a value that can be as high
as 46% during the dry season (Parodi, 2016). Considering its increasing
demand for water, it is not surprising that recent reports have arisen
delving into the risks linked to water sustainability (SEDAPAL, 2014;
Kosow et al., 2013; LIWA, 2009).
Although diverting water from the Atlantic basin has allowed Lima
to postpone its extreme vulnerability to water scarcity, and current pro-
jects are bound to further delay this inevitable situation, it is important

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.06.222
0048-9697/© 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 I. Vázquez-Rowe et al. / Science of the Total Environment 605–606 (2017) 246–250
Fig. 1. Citizens queueing for water in the district of Miraflores (Lima) on March 19th 2017. At the time the photograph was taken water production at the water treatment plant had been at
a halt for 48 h due to extreme turbidity in the river Rímac, leaving the entire city without any water supply.
to bear in mind that recent studies agree on the fact that South America
will suffer from increased water stress due to global warming (Bradley
et al., 2006). For instance, glacier retreat has already affected the output
of hydropower plants in Peru (Bradley et al., 2006; Vergara et al., 2009),
a phenomenon that coincides with a predicted threefold increase in the
amount of water needed to support energy production in the region
(WEC, 2008). Moreover, Andean countries are expected to suffer con-
siderable changes in rainfall patterns (SENAMHI, 2009), adding to
water insecurity through prolonged droughts and increased average
temperatures, which imply an augmentation in the amount of energy
needed to meet energy demand for cooling and for water treatment
(Vergara et al., 2009; Rothausen and Conway, 2011). Therefore, it
seems plausible to presume that water supply security may be strongly
affected due to a reduction in available water resources, but also due to
population growth and urbanization.
Consequently, it is evident that numerous actions must be taken in
the short-term to reduce the unsustainability of Lima's water supply.
Many of these will be related to the development of new infrastructures
to supply the city, while others will focus on improving the urban water
cycle, aiming at: a) reducing the dependency on the river Rímac for
water production; b) limiting the losses in the water network, which
are currently estimated at over 8.0 m3/s (i.e., 29% of total water produc-
tion), while guaranteeing access to water to impoverished areas of a city
where 8% of the population does not have direct access to potable
water; or, c) mitigating the approximately 20 m3/s of wastewater dis-
posed of in the ocean with obsolete or basic treatment technologies
(SEDAPAL, 2014).
In the first place, water production is highly reliant on the Rímac and
on the main drinking water plant: La Atarjea. Although a new plant is
currently being upgraded to produce 5.0 m3/s, the water source would
still be the Rímac (Comercio, 2017). Hence, vulnerability to events
such as those that occurred in March 2017 would only be mitigated by
a higher storage potential of drinking water, which could last a few ad-
ditional hours or days. Furthermore, severe damage at La Atarjea in the
case of large seismic events could potentially leave millions of people
without water for weeks. Therefore, decentralization of the potable
water system by investing in alternative smaller infrastructures such
247
as desalinization plants, could provide increased resilience and mitigate
potential humanitarian crises (Peter-Varbanets et al., 2009; Lundie et
al., 2004).
Secondly, a growing city in a desert area where rainfall is rare cannot
afford to waste approximately 30% of its water production prior to its
intended use (SEDAPAL, 2014). A couple of decades ago one could
argue that the capital city of what was at the time a very poor country
could struggle with basic infrastructures. Nowadays, however,
upgrading the deteriorated water pipeline network, which is the most
exposed component of the urban water cycle in Lima to seismic events
(ERN – AL, 2012), should be a priority on a par with other on-going
investments in infrastructures, such as the subway system or the
seismic retrofit of public buildings. Based on a recent report of the
World Bank, the exposed value of the pipeline infrastructure prone
to be damaged in a seismic event could be as high as 2.2 billion
USD (ERN – AL, 2012).
Finally, the wastewater management strategy was almost nonexis-
tent in 2011, with 83.1% of the collected wastewater directly discharged
into the ocean or other water bodies without treatment (Moscoso,
2011). Currently, the situation has improved by centralizing wastewater
treatment in two very large wastewater treatment plants – WWTPs.
These plants were intended to complement a set of small facilities dis-
tributed throughout the city. On the one hand, PTAR Taboada, in opera-
tion since 2013, treats wastewater in the northern sector of Lima.
Designed to treat 14 m3/s, representing 56% of the population, by
early 2015 it was treating on average 10.7 m3/s (Mitchell, 1999). On
the other hand, PTAR La Chira initiated its operations in May 2016,
treating wastewater in most of the remaining districts in the southern
sector of the city (Parodi, 2016). The combination of both plants cur-
rently treats ca. 17 m3/s, representing 85.8% of the total sewage collect-
ed, with a remarkably restrained use of land use (0.26 ha/m3 s) as
compared to the other solutions applied across the city (Fig. 2). Both
plants consist of a pre-treatment step, including coarse screens, de-
greaser/de-gritter units and rotatory drum screens. Nevertheless, re-
moval of trash from the waters discharged into the ocean and the dilu-
tion of the remaining pollutants in the ocean through the creation of the
marine outfall only partially solve the lack of an integrated treatment
248 I. Vázquez-Rowe et al. / Science of the Total Environment 605–606 (2017) 246–250

Fig. 2. Wastewater treatment plants in Lima by type of applied technology and size. Facultative lagoons, aerated lagoons and combined aerobic/anaerobic lagoons represent roughly 10% of
wastewater treated. Numerous problems and limitations linked to these technologies have arisen, including inadequate maintenance and operation protocols, causing flooding in adjacent
areas, algae growth, bad odor episodes due to anaerobic decomposition, and increased competition for urban spaces.

system in Lima, with evident (but insufficient) improvements along the
coastal front of the metropolitan area.
In this context, we argue that the layout of the current system is an
inadequate solution for wastewater management in the city, since lim-
itations in terms of technology and treatment completeness are present
in the layout of both plants. The lack of a physico-chemical primary
treatment, for instance, impedes a substantial reduction in the emission
of heavy metals into the sea. Moreover, the absence of biological treat-
ment hinders the removal of soluble organic material and nutrients,
leading to a still highly polluted effluent in terms of eutrophication po-
tential, failing to fulfill a pivotal function of any WWTP (Conley et al.,
2009). Interestingly, it should be noted that Peruvian legislation only
sets discharge limits for organic matter and suspended solids, leaving
the discharge of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous
 I. Vázquez-Rowe et al. / Science of the Total Environment 605–606 (2017) 246–250
unregulated. The presence of advanced secondary treatments or tertiary
treatments would, however, automatically improve the proliferation
along Lima's coastline of economic activities such as tourism and fishing,
which have remained inhibited for decades due to deficient water qual-
ity (Levin et al., 2009).
Although these limitations are reasonable in a wastewater manage-
ment scheme in its first stages of development, we argue that they are
further aggravated by the fact that the current layout lacks flexibility
and adaptability for future upgrades and policy changes. On the one
hand, the high density urban context of the sites in charge of treating
the vast majority of the wastewater makes it extremely difficult to up-
grade the plants. The inability to perform upgrades will make it very dif-
ficult to keep up with the stricter legislation that will presumably be
developed in the future. On the other hand, the present management
strategy stands in the way of several of the objectives that are implicit
in modern WWTPs, beyond the priority to reduce eutrophication.
These new possibilities, such as nutrient recovery, water reuse or energy
recovery are more alienated with small-medium scale decentralized
WWTPs than with mega-plants (Nair et al., 2014).
Regardless of the benefits of recovering nutrients or energy from
wastewater flows (Li et al., 2015b), fostering the reuse of wastewater
would lower the stress on fragile natural sources in the metropolitan
area. Although reclaimed water is already a reality in some districts in
Lima where it is used to water parks, more sophisticated purification
technologies could aim at producing water for replenishing the deplet-
ed aquifers in the metropolitan area or for direct human consumption,
provided that human resources are trained correctly (Rittmann et al.,
2005). Moreover, decentralizing water reuse mechanisms would reduce
reliance on a limited number of water sources and, together with the
use of desalinization plants, could help reduce risks and vulnerability
in the city (Elimelech and Phillip, 2011). On the one hand, the city
would have a more robust response to extreme weather events by di-
versifying the potable water sources available. On the other hand,
decentralized systems lower the vulnerability to these and other events
(e.g., earthquakes), since the recovery time required to restore the func-
tioning of water infrastructures with minimal disruption could be sub-
stantially lower than in centralized systems (Massoud et al., 2009;
Eggimann et al., 2015).
We should expect water to become an increasingly valuable re-
source in the next few decades in Lima, with intermittent seismic and
severe weather events, including an increase in the frequency of ex-
treme El Niño events (Cai et al., 2014), playing a disrupting role in the
adaptive management actions that the city must undertake. Conse-
quently, a series of parallel actions involving all the stages of the
urban water cycle must be performed in order to guarantee water sup-
ply, reduce vulnerability and increase the resilience of the city. Howev-
er, the current lack of further investment depicts a situation that
suggests that authorities are lacking adaptive management in terms of
water and wastewater treatment strategies. New fast and informal
urban sprawl, outside the planning system in peripheral Lima, could
further aggravate the lack of adaptive management (Inostroza, 2016).
On April 7th 2017 the end of a 6-year drought affecting the state of
California was announced by its governor, Jerry Brown. Nonetheless,
he stated that “conservation must remain a way of life”, since a new
“drought could be around the corner” (New York Times, 2017b).
Water conservation must also become a behavioral trait in Lima, one
of the cities with the highest water consumption per capita in Latin
America (206 L per capita in 2014) (INEI, 2015). In parallel, smart in-
vestment in decentralized water and wastewater infrastructures
must be prioritized to increase the resilience of a city prone to being
intermittently hit by different natural disasters. Expenditure in water
infrastructures in Lima is expected to be high, potentially increasing
the cost of water considerably. Despite this drawback, which may
cause social discontent, history demonstrates that Peru's capital city
requires such investment in order to avoid the chronicle of a humani-
tarian crisis foretold.
249
Author contributions
I.V-R. conceived the study in discussion with R.K. and Y. L-T., and
wrote the initial draft of the letter. All authors contributed to the elabo-
ration of the opinions provided, as well as to the improvement of the
letter.
Competing financial interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Gustavo Larrea-Gallegos and Miguel Ángel
Astorayme for valuable scientific exchange.
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