Peru’s record flooding reveals need for women-led reconstruction, climate mitigation efforts
Recent floods and mudslides in Peru have created a crisis that highlights the need for more effective ways to prevent and confront natural disasters—and to empower grassroots women’s groups to lead crisis response and sustainable recovery efforts—in a world where all evidence points to the fact that they will only become more frequent and devastating.
Flooding has left at least 106 dead and hundreds more wounded, according to Peru’s National Emergency Operations Center. The government says some 156,000 have been forced from their homes, while relief agencies put the number of homeless at 700,000. With the cost of the flooding calculated at $3.1 billion and the cost of reconstruction estimated at $9 billion, the human costs are incalculable. This dramatic video shows a mud-covered woman, barely distinguishable from the swirling debris around her, emerging from a massive slide.
