Proyecto Higueras
Problem statement
The main issue in this project is how to primary educate in environment and sustainably about the rivers and its resources, and second how to manage to clean the rivers and promote values and actitudes in the local population to improve the maintenance of clean waters in the rivers and river stretches.
Research of the water pollution of the Huallaga and Higueras rivers, as tributaries of the Marañón river, and part of the Amazon Basin, will make it clear the Hight contamination rates caused by mining and urban and industrial wastes; and the gaps from the local and national authorities to support and maintain the natural environment, even do it is a law in Peru. The major pollutants are mining and human waste.
Thus, our goal in this project, is to create environmental awareness as well in the local population as in the public institutions, to achieve sustainable development, the difficulty will be to learn the local population how to start to use with respect the rivers own natural resources, and involve the public authorities to implement with the necessary infrastructure as for example invest in waste industry ,as well as the creation and use of the existent pro-environmental policies and regulations, to change the current condition which will lead to the river sources degradation and a future ecological disaster.
The difficulty for the main actors involved in river management and sustainable strategies to protect and preserve the Huallaga and Higueras rivers and their paths from serious degradation, it is possibly how to coordinate the interaction between local people and public entities. River management has a role for all parts concerned, and it calls for an effort of communication improvement. In this case we will work focusing the roles and obstacles faced by stakeholders, and if necessary, to be the link between them.
The data we are going to use is based on semi structured interviews, survey and documentation from the community organizations, advertisements in the local area, investigating facts from recent research as observations about river pollutions and river cleaning, and the river degradations consequences in a short and long term, as well as deforestations politics in Peru, the influence and effectiveness of the environmental law and their possible use to facilitate our work searching to clean maintain and preserve the biodiversity of the rivers in mention.
The challenge for a future work, will be the preservation of the lack of synergy from the stakeholders working on river management, and awareness of the environmental preservation, therefore our focus from the beginning will be on coordination, cooperation and consultation among the parts involved and our project. The involvement of the local community will be essential for the maintenance and sustainable development and future solution of the actual pollution problem.
As well, the participation of citizens can complement existent legal and economic instruments, which are facing a lack of problems in the Peruvian society actually as corruption and bureaucracy, moreover there are increasing needs for such a local participation, as they are one of the major pollutants, as a result of a shift from production to consumption processes.
The Human Development Repport of 2018 (UNDP) situates Peru in the middle third of countries with indicator for well-developed politics for environmental sustainability specially in the urban areas , Peru is actually in the nr 89 of 189 countries developing systems and laws to protect the natural environment, even do in the forest area, Peru is situated in the bottom third, it means almost no changes has been done since 1990 as a complement for the legal existent framework.
Thus, efficient politics and action of awareness and pro-environmental behavior by general public is an urgent issue in protecting our natural world, and the future generations habitat. To adopt a sustainable lifestyle, this including act with respect for nature and natural environments, and increase the participation of common citizens, means also that legal frameworks will be more respected and effective.
