Seoul builds waterworks for 120,000 in central Peru

The Seoul city government announced Wednesday that it has successfully built or renovated waterworks in Chanchamayo, Peru, which will provide clean water to about 120,000 residents in the area.

“Seoul Metropolitan Government’s project in Chanchamayo is its first overseas development assistance project,” the city government said in its press release. “We are injecting 2.1 billion won [$1.8 million] from 2013 to 2018 into building or renovating water supplies and purification plants in Chanchamayo’s San Ramon, La Merced and Pichanaki, which will provide clean water to some 120,000 residents in the area.”

The project began after Chanchamayo Mayor Jung Hung-won, a Korean, requested Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon for the Seoul city government’s assistance in improving the water facilities in Chanchamayo, during his visit to Seoul in 2012.

Since then, the Seoul city government has been building and improving waterworks in Chanchamayo in stages. It improved the aqueduct and water intake systems at San Ramon in 2013, built a new water purification plant for San Ramon in 2014, improved the water supply plants in San Ramon in 2015 and improved the water supply plants in La Merced in 2016.

“The region uses water from local streams but they were not fit to drink, and we saw that some water supply plants were damaged from floods,” said the Seoul city government. “The water purification system in San Ramon was left on its own in mid-construction after the local government couldn’t fund the project on its own seven years ago.”

The city government added, “After Seoul’s renovations, residents of La Merced are able to collect some 7,000 tons of water per day and purify them as needed. Into next year, we will be renovating the water supply plants and water pipe lines in Pichanaki.”

The Seoul city government said other cities, like Huancayo in Peru and Bogota in Colombia, are also interested in possible cooperation with Seoul to improve local water supply and purification systems.

“The Seoul city government hopes to continue to provide assistance where needed throughout the world to build water facilities for cleaner water,” said Yun Jun-byeong, head of the Office of Waterworks of the Seoul city government. “We also hope to find opportunities to expand Korea’s businesses on waterworks abroad.”

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]