{"id":447726,"date":"2026-05-18T13:35:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T13:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/447726\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T13:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T13:35:07","slug":"high-risk-yet-home-to-thousands-the-makeshift-towns-at-the-mercy-of-landslides-and-floods-in-peru-flooding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/447726\/","title":{"rendered":"High risk yet home to thousands: the makeshift towns at the mercy of landslides and floods in Peru | Flooding"},"content":{"rendered":"

In December 2009, a late\u2011afternoon storm unleashed torrential rain<\/a> over Ayacucho, in Peru<\/a>, hitting poor hillside neighbourhoods hard. The deluge overwhelmed drainage systems, turning streams into lethal flows of mud, stones and debris that flooded houses and streets and trapped drivers at a busy junction.<\/p>\n

Ten people died, 18 were injured, and 530 houses were destroyed or damaged, according to a government inquest<\/a>. \u201cIt was a disaster,\u201d recalls Edgar Castro, a leader in Ayacucho\u2019s largest informal neighbourhood, Mollepata.<\/p>\n

Nearly 17 years on from the tragedy, thousands more have built their houses in areas at high risk of extreme weather on the outskirts of Ayacucho. Castro, who lives with the threat of history repeating itself, represents 34 community groups who are working with local government to bring these areas \u2013 starting with Mollepata \u2013 into the fold of urban planning.<\/p>\n

Throughout Latin America, one in five people live in unplanned settlements<\/a>, built haphazardly and often in high-risk zones for flooding, landslides or drought. These are inherently more vulnerable to natural disasters brought on by the climate crisis.<\/p>\n

A house destroyed by a landslide, which are becoming more frequent due to the climate crisis. Photograph: Anastasia Austin<\/p>\n

\u201cAs extreme weather events become more frequent, the urban poor are simultaneously exposed to temperature extremes and least equipped to manage them,\u201d says Cynthia Goytia, professor of urban economics at Torcuato Di Tella University in Buenos Aires.<\/p>\n

Mollepata is a telling example in Latin America. Self-built adobe or brick houses with corrugated metal roofs balance precariously on steep slopes bordering the road from Ayacucho\u2019s centre. What starts as a paved road soon turns into a dusty, pothole-ridden path.<\/p>\n

Edgar Castro, a leader of Mollepata informal neighbourhood. Photograph: Anastasia Austin<\/p>\n

Until the early 2000s, few people lived here. But as property prices soared, new arrivals occupied former grazing land on the city\u2019s rural outskirts. This grew into Mollepata, where people crowd into informal dwellings, at about seven times<\/a> the density of Ayacucho itself.<\/p>\n

Between 2007 and 2017, Mollepata\u2019s population increased 20-fold<\/a>, from 316 to 6,624, according to Ayacucho authorities, who estimate that by 2027 it will reach 17,000. Yet, according to people who live there, official data bears little relation to reality. \u201cMollepata has more than 30,000 inhabitants if you count kids, adults and old people,\u201d says Castro, adding that they live \u201cin a no-man\u2019s land\u201d.<\/p>\n

Two-thirds of its population and all of its schools are in areas deemed high-risk for natural disasters<\/a>, according to authorities. And it is just one of several informal neighbourhoods whose rapid growth aggravates the already alarming risk of extreme weather disasters for those neighbourhoods and for Ayacucho as a whole.<\/p>\n

Ayacucho lies in the heart of the Peruvian Andes, where annual rainfall has halved since 1984<\/a>. The local glacial peak has also lost 95% of its snowcap<\/a>. For city dwellers that means shorter, less predictable rainy seasons. Rainfall, when it comes, drops in short, increasingly intense storms that overtake the Ayacucho valley, causing floods and landslides.<\/p>\n

The rest of the time, people face severe water shortages and soaring temperatures, made worse by concrete structures that trap heat. Poorly constructed dwellings in informal settlements are worse still, with inadequate ventilation and inefficient cooling systems.<\/p>\n

Recent years have seen a sharp increase in construction on steep slopes, ravines, and riverbanks due to a lack of alternative land. Photograph: Douwe den Held<\/p>\n

This way of building turns whole neighbourhoods into \u201clittle ovens\u201d, says Juan Carlos Prado, an environmental specialist working for the municipality.<\/p>\n

The informal neighbourhoods at highest risk from these disasters also tend to be the most underserved. They lack reliable water systems and accessible emergency or medical services \u2013 so when a catastrophe hits, they are the least prepared to respond.<\/p>\n

double quotation markWhat solutions can we give? The only thing we can say is, \u2018Try to find another place because you are too exposed\u2019Juan Carlos Prado, environmental specialist<\/p>\n

Many rely on just one unpaved access road \u2013 a single bridge connects Mollepata to the rest of Ayacucho. \u201cIf that collapses, they\u2019re isolated in an instant,\u201d Prado says.<\/p>\n

With this in mind, and under the shadow of the 2009 tragedy, the municipality runs education campaigns. But Castro says that many people \u201cstill don\u2019t take these consequences into account\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to experts, the only solution for those in risky terrain is to move. \u201cWe can\u2019t negotiate with nature. We can\u2019t get in the way of the rivers,\u201d Prado says, though he doesn\u2019t know a single case in which people voluntarily abandoned their plots.<\/p>\n

\u201cFamilies make calculated trade-offs between affordability, proximity to livelihoods, and existing social networks, often accepting elevated environmental risk as the price of urban access,\u201d says Goytia.<\/p>\n

The city has no money for relocation programmes, according to Prado. \u201cThey say to us, \u2018Where can I go?\u2019 \u2018Where do you want me to live?\u2019 \u2018Solve it for me\u2019,\u201d he says. \u201cBut what solutions can we give? The only thing we can say is, \u2018Try to find another place because you are too exposed\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mollepata residents and Ayacucho municipal officials discuss how to bring the neighbourhood within safe planning regulations. Photograph: Anastasia Austin<\/p>\n

In 2025, Ayacucho municipal government published a plan to improve public services<\/a>, structure private and public land, and establish measures to manage disaster risks. Since then, it has begun meeting association leaders to bridge the gap between plans drawn up in municipal offices and the reality on the ground.<\/p>\n

The climate crisis is making the environment more arid and the dirt road more dusty, damaging people\u2019s health and quality of life. By grading and compacting the main road, officials hope to minimise dust and make it easier to get to Ayacucho, where most emergency services are concentrated. Drainage ditches will be built to mitigate the risk of flash floods from the rainy season.<\/p>\n

Yet, bringing in government retroactively comes with challenges. Because of existing irregular water infrastructure under the road, the drainage ditches must be shallow. And while the government will provide machinery, local people must remove any debris and guide the machines, as only they know where underground tubes run.<\/p>\n

Mollepata\u2019s community leaders seem more than ready to meet these demands, promising to rent a dump truck and coordinate volunteer groups. They also discuss the need to increase green areas, vital to mitigating the urban heat-island effect.<\/p>\n

Ayacucho\u2019s green central square provides relief on a hot day. Tree-planting initiatives are planned for Mollepata. Photograph: Douwe den Held<\/p>\n

The town official in charge of reforestation promises to provide people with tree seedlings in the rainy season, when water is less scarce. There is even land set aside for a park.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the past four decades, Latin American governments have largely moved away from demolition and forced eviction toward formalisation, regularisation and comprehensive neighbourhood upgrading programmes,\u201d Goytia says.<\/p>\n

But the efforts in Mollepata demonstrate how challenging this policy shift can be, given local governments\u2019 resource constraints. Integrating Mollepata into the city will cost more than 530m soles<\/a> (about \u00a3116m), almost five times Ayacucho\u2019s municipal annual budget, according to official estimates. A shorter list of high-priority projects would still cost 460m soles.<\/p>\n

For local people, issues such as insecurity, lack of transport, and rubbish disposal are often more urgent than water shortages, floods and avalanches. While authorities and those established in Mollepata work to integrate it into the city, new settlements are emerging as rural Peruvians seek footholds there.<\/p>\n

A road sign buried by a landslide. Despite the risks many people don\u2019t want to leave their communities. Photograph: Douwe den Held<\/p>\n

With most of the relatively safe areas already built up, recent years have seen a sharp increase in building on steep slopes, in ravines and along riverbanks. \u201cThe situation is becoming critical,\u201d Prado says.<\/p>\n

Still, at least in Mollepata, local people and municipal workers strike a hopeful tone. Castro sees the approval of his settlement plan as a great achievement and lauds officials for travelling to the settlement to meet the people.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy getting their boots dirty,\u201d Castro says, \u201cthey see how we live here and the situation we are in.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In December 2009, a late\u2011afternoon storm unleashed torrential rain over Ayacucho, in Peru, hitting poor hillside neighbourhoods hard.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-447726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}