The nightmare of Peru

HUNDREDS of young children are dying in the Andes of Peru as the country attempts to deal with its worst winter for 50 years.


Temperatures are plummeting to a deadly -24C which is literally freezing the old and young to death in their sleep, unprotected by their flimsy straw shacks.

In a world growing hotter because of climate change, the Andes of Peru is an anomaly with an increasingly cold microclimate, altered by the rapid melting of the glaciers.

Rafael Rojas Huanqui, regional director for the Defensa Civil, the national disaster protection agency said:

"There have been many dead children. I don't know how many, but there are more and more and mainly the deaths have been from pneumonia.

"They have no resilience of any kind to deal with the weather getting colder."

The changing weather has come on top of a lack of basic health services, animal diseases, rising food prices and a declining availability of water.

Since 2007, children's acute respiratory infections have increased by 30% and staple food production has fallen by 44%. Latest figures show that one in 10 children do not live to see their first birthday.

Rebecca Clements, who works in Peru for UK NGO Practical Action, said the farmers and herdsmen of the high Andes, who live up to 5,000 metres above sea level, know that this extreme weather is not normal.

“The mountain people themselves have noticed these changes, without knowing anything about the science of climate change.

“Famers here don’t switch the TV on to check the weather forecast, they look for signs around them, when flowers come into bloom, when certain animals start to nest and from that they can predict what kind of weather is to come.

“But now they are finding that these indicators are no longer working because the climate is changing so rapidly and dramatically.”

And as the conditions start to worsen, the village people of the Andes must make the harrowing choice of protecting their children or their animals which are vital for business.

The people have herds of over 100,000 alpacas which rural communities depend upon not only for the wool trade but to clothe and feed their families.

Since 2007, alpaca mortality in the Andes has more than doubled, with pregnant animals aborting their calves putting further strain on the food supply of local people.

Teresa Carpio, director of Save the Children Peru said:

"The welfare of children is sidelined because the situation is so bad that everything has become about the survival of the animals, both for the families themselves and the agencies who are trying to support them.

"In the west we tend to think that children take priority above all else, but when there is this level of desperation, children can be the last to get the attention they so badly need – until it is too late."