FACTORTIERRA

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 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...

Almost all Piura region will have to be intervened for preventing problems caused by the abundance of water - or its lack.  By Nelson Peñaherrera Castillo PIURA CITY, Peru - One of the most extended prejudges by the people visiting Piura is believing that the whole territory is flat when the reality points out that the Andean Range , from its first spurs, occupies its half. And the fact is relevant when we want to explain natural events  like the floods during  a

The Pre-Columbian history in and around the second largest city of Piura urges a bigger investigation.  All photographs by César Rivas , special to FACTORTIERRA SULLANA, Peru - Locals in Upper Chira Valley call them "lomas" (hills in English)  and their houses are around them. Inclusive, one of them is the source for making adobes or unbaked bricks in Chalacalá Baja Town. But at least around 550 years ago, they seemed to be funerary monts. "There are at least about 30 huacas like those between Sullana [City] and  La Peña," Archaeologist Daniel Dávila Manrique explains. We have already shared with him the experience of identifying and verifying evidences of this kind in

The need to have more parks versus the need to have more houses. By Nelson Peñaherrera C . Photographs provided by ImaginaParque. PIURA CITY, Peru - The hunger for money and the need for a home seem to be pushing the invasion of public spaces for parks. The right of someones is literally drowning the right of a community needing oxygen and regulating the climate, also creating or keeping  ecosystems those got to adapt inside urban spaces. And inside that same urban space, there are human beings who need a place to live, and the whole controversy seem to base upon right here. The denounces of lots usurpation across Piura City  are daily and they all configure alleged criminal schemes  those even the local Catholic Church has been pressumibily involved, as Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV network suggested mid-December 2016 . In contrast at Santa Julia Neighborhood, located at city's western sector, it try to prevent another future park to disappear combining urbanism a...

RINCONADA LLICUAR, Peru – The chairmembers of the Bayóvar Integral Project’s Social Fund  (Fospibay, as in Spanish) opened and gave more than 14 km or 11 miles of coated canals funded by resources coming from non-metallic mining royalties, that benefit directly a better irrigation of more than 600 hectares or 1483 acres of crop lands located in this Sechura Province ’s district.   Fospibay’s senior manager Segundo Reusche Castillo gave the work and reported that the project to improve 10 irrigation canals costed more than US$ 3 million, that included the physical works and the training to the farmers, as well as the supervision of the initiative.   “The social fund builds and makes real the dreams of Sechura-natives print on their projects, and this work has been a hope of hundreds of farmers and citizens involved with the development of their people. The project has been executed according to the technical file, the timelines have been accomplished, and there was...

TAMBOGRANDE, Peru – On June 2, 2002, nearly 40,000 people voluntarily participated in a non-binding local referendum to express their opinions on mining activities throughout the Tambogrande District, including the agro-exporting San Lorenzo Valley and the dry forest in the Locuto Community .   98% of the valid votes were against mining, which dealt a blow to Manhattan Minerals Corporation (now Mediterranean Resources), which had the concession to exploit three deposits between the City of Tambogrande and the Community of Locuto, as it evidenced a lack of social license . The Vancouver-based company had repeatedly claimed it had the support of the local population.   The impact of this exercise in democracy was such that it was replicated in Esquel (Argentina), Sipacapa (Guatemala), and three districts in the highlands of Piura (Peru) between 2003 and 2007, with similar results.   In the case of Tambogrande, following the referendum and the boycott b...