• Oil, Natural Gas, and Electric Deregulation



• Stopping the Nuclear Relapse



• Interactive Map of Proposed New Reactors



• The Case Against Nuclear Power



• The Case for Renewables and Efficiency



• Energy Legislation



• Press Room



• Congressional Voting Records



• Take Action!

Statement From Chepen, Peru: “Water Belongs to Everyone”

[The farming community of Chepen is made up descendents of the pre-colombian culture of Mochica.  It is located on the northern cost of Peru in the Valle del Rio Jequetepeque.]

The economy and the lives of the people in our small town have changed over the last decade especially since negotiations began with the government, the IMF, the World Bank and other organizations.   We had great hopes and expectations that our valley and our farming community would regain its water and its land, that we would be able to educate and feed our children, and that we would finally win the hard battle for our lives.  Today, after all these years, the echo of all the negotiations, the poverty of a major sector of the population, a few new rich people, and the menace of the privatization of the water is all that we have left.

In Chepen the principal productive activity is agriculture.   The valley has very little industrial activity.  The farming community is on the margins of the decisions made about water and to a large extent our land has been taken by the government.  The importance of water to maintain our work and our livelihood is fundamental.  From the beginnings of our ancestral Mohican culture up until the present time, water has been the object of delicate and loving treatment because it has generously given us life.  In our culture water and land are lovers almost as if they were the mother and father of our community.  Since ancient times, it was believed that to take water from a person was equivalent to condemning that person to suffer and even to die.  Water and land should not be the property of anyone.  They belong to no one.  They have been here since the beginning of time, before men and women began to produce goods.  It should not even be possible to think that water could be an object to buy and sell.  It is our responsibility to participate in its care and distribution.  Our stewardship should ensure that it will pass to our children and the children of our children until the end of time.  In that way it belongs to those that have yet to be born.

The struggle for the land and the water that we have had to mount against the big landowners caused a military occupation in our city and countryside and many deaths.   Later, they build the large dam “Gallito Ciego” and the lack of equitable water distribution meant that we could not plant our communal lands.  The desire to privatize the water and the large dams that the government constructs have woken up the farmers because now they know they will have to resist.  The farmers have begun to revive all of their organizations and are discussing how to successfully confront the privatization of water and how to regain their land.

Olinda Noriega Torero
Presidenta, Asociacion de Mujeres Valle de la Luna
Valle del Jequeteque, Peru

more resources

Because Public Citizen does not accept funds from corporations, professional associations or government agencies, we can remain independent and follow the truth wherever it may lead. But that means we depend on the generosity of concerned citizens like you for the resources to fight on behalf of the public interest. If you would like to help us in our fight, click here.