Rosa Gonzales Aliaga uses a hose connected to a water supply truck to fill her tank in San Juan de Miraflores, an outer district of Lima, Peru.
Photographer: Sebastian Castañeda Vita for Bloomberg Markets
Lima’s Poorest Residents Are Buying Drinking Water From a Truck
More than 1.5 million people in Peru’s capital aren't connected to the water or sewage grid, while the richest have enough for pools and gardens.
It rarely rains in Lima. Peru’s capital, on the country’s desert coast, gets only a third of an inch of precipitation a year. So the arid city’s 10 million or so inhabitants rely on three rivers for their water supply. Yet access to this resource isn’t equal for all.
About 1.5 million people aren’t connected to Lima’s drinking water grid or sewage system, according to Oxfam. Many poorer households in the city’s sprawling metropolitan areas depend exclusively on tanker trucks for their water.