water canal peru
© Wikimedia CommonsAn Inca-era water canal at Tipón, Peru
Peru has been facing a severe water crisis as chronic problems such as polluted water supplies and environmental change combine to undermine the water security of the entire country. However, the city of Lima is now using a series of ancient canals and irrigation channels built by pre-hispanic cultures around 2,000 years ago, and extended by the Wari and the Inca, in order to supply the inhabitants with clean, unpolluted water, and to maintain parks and other public green areas.

In April, 2015, a new plan was put forward by Lima's water utility company, Sedapal, to revive an ancient network of stone canals that were built by the Wari culture. EFE reports that pre-hispanic canals are now being utilized to serve the water needs of Lima.

Peru's highly populated arid Pacific coast depends on water from glacial melt to compensate for the region's lack of rainfall, but Peru's glaciers have been retreating at a rapid and increasing rate, leaving many areas without adequate access to water. Lima's failing public water system has been unable to address the problem, and privatization has been the preferred formula of the government for fixing the deficiencies - a move that is widely unpopular with the majority of the Peruvian people.

peru drought
© Matt McGrath / BBC Paying for water delivered by truck is part of the daily routine for many inhabitants in Peru.
All that is changing now, as Lima's water utility company is looking to the ancient past for solutions to modern-day problems.

"The legacy of pre-hispanic canals built by the Lima culture and extended by the Wari, Ichma, and Inca today makes possible the existence of parks and other public green areas," reports EFE researcher and journalist Javier Lizarzaburu, promoter of the campaign Millennial Lima [via El Espectador ].

Read the rest here.