Water supply in Covid-19 times: the role of public operators, housing associations and informal providers in Arequipa, Peru

ABSTRACT

We explore responses of water supply providers during the first stage of the Covid-19 pandemic in Arequipa, Peru, contrasting actions by the public water company, dominant in the city core, and by neighbourhood associations, dominant in the unplanned periphery. The water company implemented instalment payments, the suspension of water shutoffs and the distribution of free water giving priority to the core districts. On the periphery, neighbourhood associations continued to depend mostly on water trucks under irregular and expensive service. The pandemic made more evident the fragmented nature of water supply in cities of the Global South such as Arequipa.

KEYWORDS:

• Covid-19
• public water
• formal and informal neighbourhoods
• Arequipa
• Peru

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the editor and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable criticisms, comments and suggestions on previous versions of the manuscript. Likewise, the authors would like to thank all the interviewees from various organizations related to water supply and housing associations in Arequipa who kindly participated in the interviews.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

L. Zapana acknowledges funding from the Peruvian Ministry of Education, through the Programa Nacional de Becas y Crédito Educativo, by means of a scholarship for doctoral studies. M. Satorras acknowledges funding from the Spanish State Research Agency through the Juan de la Cierva-Formación programme [grant number FJCI-2017-31723].