Journal, January 14

Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink. These words came to mind as I turned on the tap in the riverboat bathroom, and watched a brown stream of water wash down the drain, and back into the Amazon River. Although the other passengers readily washed themselves with the water, I could not ignore the fact that our raw sewage and garbage were being dumped into the same water. The situation hardly improved when I arrived in the city of Iquitos, where I was to be spending my New Year’s vacation. Even at the Camiri Floating Hostel, potable water was scarce and the toilets flushed directly into the water in which the hostel was floating. These experiences saddened me, but I was not prepared for the experience that was Belén.  

Belén is an extremely poor shantytown of 65,000 people in the floodplain of the Itaya River, on the outskirts of Iquitos. This city on stilts, also known as the “Venice of Latin America,” has become one of the tourism highlights of Iquitos, and visitors can hire guides to give them one-hour motorboat tours of the district.  It was certainly the most interesting part of my trip to the Peruvian Amazon, but I left with many concerns about the area. When we first got into the boat in the Belén Market, the smell of the polluted water was so bad that we were all holding our breaths. Garbage clogged the alleyways, and the stagnant water provided a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes.  One can imagine our surprise when we saw children swimming. Our tour guide, a resident of the area, explained that residents regularly swim, bathe, do laundry, and wash dishes in the water. This leads to a high incidence of water-borne diseases and drownings. Besides these and many other profound health issues that result from a complete lack of sanitation and waste management, residents suffer from a lack of electricity, education, and employment, and encounter significant violence in their homes and communities.

Belén is a poignant illustration of the spatial dimensions of poverty. Around the world, the poor are found living in densely populated, marginal areas, where potable water and other natural resources are scarce. The residents of Belén are extremely vulnerable to natural hazards, and have suffered terribly from environmental degradation following the severe flooding of early 2012.  Not only was their infrastructure affected, there were thousands of injuries, and the floods brought malaria- and dengue-carrying mosquitoes to the area. The risk of natural disasters such as this will only increase as climate change continues to affect precipitation patterns in the Peruvian Amazon. On the other side of the poverty-environment nexus, the residents of Belén contribute significantly to environmental degradation through the disposal of garbage and untreated sewage into the river. Our tour guide explained that most people are unaware of the impacts of their actions, but even if they were aware, there is no waste management system. Consecutive mayors have been elected on promises to bring development to the area, but they have not followed through. One mayor apparently even had the courage to say that it was not his fault if people chose to live in marginal areas. This lack of political will leaves many residents feeling hopeless. It was hard to imagine that conditions would improve for them in the near future.

Our tour guide did seem to be optimistic when we asked him about the role that tourism is playing in Belén’s development and his own life. While his neighbours are struggling to find work in such a marginal area, he is thriving as a self-employed tour guide. This path, however, is inaccessible to many. When I asked him if most people in Belén work in downtown Iquitos, he said that it is too far away. In reality, it is only a few blocks away, showing that the class difference between the two areas is more of a roadblock to employment than geographical distance. He further explained that it is difficult for Belén residents to work in Iquitos because of their poor education. Even working in tourism requires knowledge of English.  It seems that economic development in Belén should be the government’s first priority, as it would bring much-needed income to the area, which would allow for taxation and services such as electricity and waste management.  In the meantime, however, the people of Belén have urgent needs for health services and education that could be met by NGOs.  I have hope that conditions in Belén will eventually improve as this young community becomes more established, and I think that aid could play an immediate role in Belén’s relief and development.