Peru: Water crisis in Piura seriously endangers rice, banana, lemon and mango crops

The main source of water for Piura is the Poechos reservoir, whose contents are primarily used to supply drinking water for human consumption in the main cities of the region, such as Piura, Sullana, Paita and Talara. These towns have an estimated monthly water demand of between 4 and 5 million cubic meters (MMC). In addition to supplying homes, irrigation water is supplied to approximately 150,000 hectares in the valleys of Chira, Medio Piura and Bajo Piura through the Daniel Escobar, Miguel Checa, Norte and Sur canals. This is almost a third of the crop fields in the region (500,000 hectares). The countryside is the main consumer of Poechos water with about 140 to 150 MMC per month. In other words, human consumption in the cities in one month barely covers agricultural consumption for one day. In the cultivated areas, key products for export and for domestic consumption coexist, such as bananas, grapes, lemons, rice and mangos. It should be noted that there are other ...