FACTORTIERRA

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 gre...

The relationship between Piura City and the water has not been one of the most positive, misunderstandings are older than its Spanish foundation.  By Nelson Peñaherrera   PIURA CITY , Peru - It is supposed that Francisco Pizarro founded San Miguel on August 15th, 1532, becoming the first Spanish Empire's city in South America, locating  it over the Tallan [pronounce "Tajahn"]  town of Tangarara, actual Marcavelica District, just beside Chira (then Turicarami in Tallan language) River.  What promised to be a productive convivence -the soil was pretty fertile- turned disease soon. Malaria decimated the immigrant population, that decided to move away the river . In 1534, it went about 50 miles SE of Tangarará, next to Pilán Mount, Monte de los Padres Acres and Las Damas Creek, actual La Matanza District. Although Lengash River ran nearby,  the city did not located beside this time. It could be renamed as Piura (supposedly from quechuan "Pir...

PIURA CITY, Peru – A 26-meter tower has risen at kilometer 5.5 of the Piura–Sullana highway . At first glance, it looks like a giant white dome perched on scaffolding. But this isn’t just infrastructure—it’s a climate sentinel . A newly installed weather radar now watches the skies, scanning for storms , rainfall , and wind patterns in real time.   And what it sees could help us understand not just local weather , but global climate phenomena like El Niño and La Niña .   🛰️ What Can This Radar Actually See? The radar system is a C250P Dual-Polarimetric Doppler Radar , built by Advanced Radar Company in Boulder, Colorado. It operates in the C-band, ideal for detecting precipitation and wind fields with high precision.   With a detection range of up to 400 km, and an operational sweep of 200 km, it covers a vast and diverse region: Direction Reach Key Areas North To the Ecuadorian borde...

After the visible vulnerability during Coastal El Niño, a modern equipment gets ready for alerting us what happens in the sky real-time . By MSC. Rodolfo Rodríguez  ( University of Piura ). Graphics and photographs provided by University of Piura. PIURA CITY, Peru - The flood-affected towns caused by Coastal El Niño claim a never-again about such disasters.  The summoned ones to change the history are, first, the (regional and national) governments , then the technical and scientific instances  for weather, climate, and disaster management & following-up. They all must consider that also the lack of warning for the projected works resulting seriously affected, as well as the bad settlement and construction of public infrastructure, and precariousness of many houses at rural zones, are factors increasing the vulnerability of a country. Regionwide, after El Niño events occured often, we must step ahead for counting with an efficient system of early alert tha...

Piura Valley confirmed to be vulnerable to meteorological events.     San Francisco Creek as it loaded on March 24 th , 2023, between Sectors Palominos (at the background) and Malingas, blocking the pass between  Districts Tambograndé and Chulucanas. (Footage provided by  Jhony Dioses , verified by and distributed by FACTORTIERRA)   The Peruvian Government had alerts of heavy to extraordinary rains since the second quarter of February 2023 . That’s why it declared a preventive emergency on March 3 rd . The whole northern half of peru was included in order to urge works preventing disasters, especially at northern coast and sierra, according to forecasts of Peru’s National Service of Meteorology and Hydrology (Senamhi, as in Spanish).   Beginning at the north edge, Tumbés Department already came with rains and overflows since February 2023 what isolated many towns, especially at the border with Ecuador . A little more to the south, at Lambaye...

By air, sea, and land, big and small have punished Colán to die.   By Nelson Peñaherrera Castillo   COLÁN, Peru – Before Máncora left it down to a second place –that is also losing—, this one was the spa of Piura for instance. Now, it is condemned to go degrading, droned by corporate and communitarian interests that can sweep centuria of tradition, like the moment they wounded the cliff that keeps it.   La Esmeralda de Colán, better simply known as Colán , is exposed to its water pollution and the waves that threaten the building close to(not mentioning over)the rim. A natural phenomenon is the killer that condemns it to a slow death.   The confluence of Humboldt and El Niño Currents also carry on died animals that get stranded on the rims: porpoises, sea lions, and dolphins have been reported at the zone. Miguel Alarcón Ato, president of La Esmeralda’s Association of Residents and Owners, suspects that the combination of industrial sewerage from Paita City to th...