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The Peruvian capital Lima is after Cairo in Egypt the second largest desert city in the world. Being responsible water wise and saving the precious resource wherever possible should go without saying.
The latest listing on water consumption in the different districts of Lima published by Sunass (the Peruvian sanitation supervisory body) using data from Sedapal, Lima’s water utility company, however suggests something different, at least for about half of the districts.
According to the World Health Organization a person can satisfy all water related needs with about 100 l of water per day. But in Lima especially in upper-class and middle class districts the consumption reaches levels two, three and even four times higher.
With 447 l per person per day San Isidro, Lima’s financial district, consumes the most water, followed by Miraflores (395.2 l per person per day), La Molina (258.8 l per person per day) and San Borja (248.1 l per person per day).
Sedapal’s calls to use water responsibly, avoid washing cars every day, not filling up pools, stop cleaning with running water and end excessively watering gardens that mostly consist of plants using lots of water instead of native plants unfortunately go unheard.
On the other hand, a few of Lima’s districts, especially the lower middle class and poorer areas further away from the core districts, consume significantly less than actually necessary for a decent life. With only 15.2 l Lurigancho Chosica consumes the lowest amount of water per person per day, after Pachacamac (36.1 l per person per day), Cieneguilla (40.4 l per person per day) and Pucusana (48.5 l per person per day). These numbers unfortunately mostly aren’t due to special water saving measures but rather due to the unavailability of running water.
For better readability of the listing, please click on the image.
