When Tambogrande Downtown became an island

Local el Niño's heavy rains smashed the place where a mine was almost to drill.  

By Liliana Alzamora and Nelson Peñaherrera
 

TAMBOGRANDÉ, Peru - Santa Cruz hill, now in the middle of the town, was in prehistoric times a dome volcano. Its red soil, rich of cooper, is the evidence of a hot past. Nowadays, any volcanic activity happens in or around but the people. Only a decade and a half ago, many opposed to a proposed open-pit mine that implied to remove the so-called Old Town, Tambogrande downtown actually.

Seen from the top of Santa Cruz Hill in a usual summer, Tambogrande looks like invaded by a green tide by the east, the North and the West - San Lorenzo Valley Colonization, the main mango and lime production area in Piura Department , at Peruvian Northwestern. The Old City remains there after the population defeated the formerly called Manhattan Minerals Corp., today renamed as Mediterranean Resources.

However the green tide was not completely green in 2017. There were many spaces full of water, not only where the valley extends but in front of the town, where Piura River, The department's second most important, flows from the southeast to southwest. This curve could be caused by the prehistoric eruption of Santa Cruz Hill, according to a thesis written and substantiated in National University of Trujillo, Peru, in 1960s, and filed in Tambogrande Public Library. The fact is the town seemed an island in 2017.

On March 3^rd, 2017, an 8-hour heavy rain and an intense electric storm, left 18 cm of water, according to Piura City-based Regional Operating Center of emergencies (COER as in Spanish), one of the strongest, only similar to the one fall in Chulucanas City, about 40 km to the southeast, ending January 2017. In Tambogrande, that rain caused floods in town's western side, affecting  5000 people, collapsing 90 homes, including some built as a sample by Manhattan Minerals to convince the people for moving to drill the mine.

Tambogrande and Chulucanas can not be considered as the season record-breakers in Piura, at least until now. According to Lima-based National Operating Center of emergencies (COEN as in Spanish), a village called Partidor, about 20 km at the north of Tambogrande, not only broke the 2017's record, but a 1999's record - 26 cm of rain on the same March 3th. Another cities around, as Sullana (40 km to the west of Tambogrande), Piura (40 km to the southwest of Tambogrande) as well claim to have serious troubles caused by rains, especially the second one, but their reports don't superate 8 cm of rain.

Romantic landmarks nothing romantic
The difference of impacts is explained by a permanent low-pressure system going from Las Lomas City in the north to Chulucanas in the south, Tambogrande in the middle, where the most extreme weather in Piura lowlands happens. It was discovered in 1997 while a wind direction survey was made.

In Piura City the authorities are expectant about what happens in Tambogrande. Piura River divides its large metro area where 0,6 million people live. Four bridges hold the connectivity among. Since rains started in January, authorities go to Sánchez Cerro bridge, the second going from the north to the south, to survey the flow speed. While in Tambogrande, the readings only reached 1200 cubic meters per second (m³/s), in Piura City got between 1900 to 2000 m³/s. In 1998 el Niño event, parts were flooded and Bolognesi Bridge, the city's fourth one, was destroyed killing around 60 people. That time, the flow rose to  4000 m³/s edge.

When survey reaches 1700 m3/s, generally, authorities close the four bridges, isolating the two halves of the metro area. Such decision can get the people angry but it saves their lives, indeed. The authorities don't want to repeat the crisis of 1998, 1983 neither. Both years were marked by extraordinary el Niño events, caused when Humboldt Current (cold water) doesn't allow to keep el Niño Current (warm water) beyond Peru-ecuador international limit in the sea.

As FACTORTIERRA reported, the ocean beside Piura Region was about 10 Celsius degrees over the usual, reaching 29 Celsius in March's first week. National survey of el Niño Phenomenon (ENFEN as in Spanish), that suggested an el Niño event that time, now names it without regrets. But it's not an el Niño massive event, but a local one called Coastal El Niño, that only affects North Peruvian shores and impacts Central Andean Range increasing flows as Rímac River, that divides Lima Metro Area, Peru's capital city.

Meanwhile, across Piura Department rains were leaving water everywhere, from the little ponds filling the lowest or the most damaged streets and avenues in all the towns until a 100-km lake occupping Sechura Desert, where Piura River actually ends. That lake was named La Niña in 1998 by former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, now jailed by corruption, human rights violations charges.

La Niña was threatening again Pan-American Highway in the segment connecting Piura and Chiclayo cities, about 200 km distance, but ponds at the neighborhoods threaten the people even when authorities have not made an official statement yet. However, dengué, a disease caused by the Aedes aeghypti mosquito's puncture, was reaching 200 confirmed cases. The insect is also the vector of chikungunya (5 confirmed cases in 2017) and zika diseases.

To get the whole picture, approximately 1,85 million people lived in Piura Department, 80% in lowlands, were rains were smashing much. The most live in urban areas. Of that amount, around 120,000 live in Tambograndé District, compounded by the town and 200 rural villages - 80 of them were isolated in 2017 because of rivers and creeks overflooded.

Tambograndé authorities have not drawed what health & sanity crisis were coming on, but the trash gathering service was not working well and the main avenue was under maintenance. Local Health Center confirmed 30 dengué cases the first week of March 2017. Locals felt their town, and especially The Old Town, was not ready for another heavy rain, but they came every afternoon and night for sure.

FACEBOOK: See and comment about the rainy season in tambogrande.

©2017 by Asociación Civil Factor Tierra. All Rights Reserved. The photographs on this entry by Aldo Palacios, distributed by FACTORTIERRA.