Nine thousand local residents in Huaraz and Independencia now have a disaster prevention map

The landslide preparedness map for the Río Quillcay river basin identifies the safe areas and the evacuation routes to safe areas identified by the municipality, which has been distributed to households in the most vulnerable areas in the region.

Working jointly, the Waraq cluster, composed of the Huaraz Provincial Municipality, the Independencia District Municipality, the Ancash Regional Government, the Huaraz Provincial Municipality, the Independencia District Municipality and the Huaraz National Civil Defence Institute, CARE Peru and the following technical institutes: the National Water Authority Glaciology Unit and the Hydric Resources Unit; and the scientific support of the Universities of Zurich (Swiss) and Texas (USA) have designed the map for landslide preparedness for  the River Quillcay river basin, where safe areas have been identified and evacuation routes to Huaraz and Independencia, based on studies of the dynamic of the River Quillcay should a landslide like the one in 1941 occur.

The prevention map has been drawn so that the local community can clearly identify the fastest evacuation route and the safe place, established by the municipality, where they should go in the event of a landslide. This has been distributed to over 9000 households in the most vulnerable areas of Huaraz and Independencia, with the support of a team of volunteers who have gone door to door to create prevention awareness in the community.

On 22 March, a press conference was held, and at the same time the first extraordinary meeting of the provincial platform of Civil Defence so far in 2017, during which the results of the circulation were presented. We can highlight that: i) 90 per cent of the households interviewed understand the importance of the Safe Zones Map (and evacuation routes) and support the formation of a culture of prevention in daily life; ii) they identify local leaders; in the areas where the danger level is “very high”, those who have been trained to circulate information in their community, and; iii) over 9000 households in Huaraz and Independencia already have a hazard map in their home.

This is just the start of a regional view of awareness and prevention which the Ancash Regional Government is working towards today, with the entities that work on planned risk management, in which the community has been given three messages: i) Never cross the river in an emergency; ii) Avoid carrying material things during an evacuation, your life is more important; iii) Go directly to the safe area shown on the danger map and show all the people you know how they should carry out the evacuation.

This activity is part of the capacity strengthening component of the Glacier Project +, which aims to build and strengthen capacities for them to be adapted for climate change and the reduction of risks associated with glacier retreat, while taking advantage of the opportunities for managing hydric resources.

The Glaciers Project+ (Proyecto Glaciares +) is an initiative of the Global Programme of Climate Change and Environment of Swiss Cooperation (SDC), operated by CARE Peru and the Swiss consortium headed by Zurich University, which works in coordination with the National Water Authority and the Ministry of the Environment, in search of ways to make use of opportunities to manage hydric resources in view of glacier retreat. It is implemented in Ancash, Cusco and Lima.