Restore Health in Cerro de Pasco

After years of denies the Peruvian government recognized the severe environmental situation in Cerro de Pasco and allocate funds for remediation.

In the last months, after several meetings between the community and the government (meetings in which the company never showed up), the central government of Peru recognized the severe situation of the city of Cerro de Pasco and decided to act with the following major points.

1. The ministry of health will provide medical attention to all the children with proved presence of heavy metals in their bodies.
2. The ministry of health will guarantee that the national institute of San Borja will attend all the polluted children.
3. The ministry of health will meet the mining company in order to coordinate the relocation of affected families.
4. The ministry of health will promote the installation of an oncological clinic in Cerro de Pasco in accordance with the regional government.
5. The ministry of health will promote, together with the regional government, the building of the new hospital in Cerro de Pasco.
6. The ministry of health will declare the area in health emergency for 90 days.
7. The ministry of health will garantee acces to drinkable water to the affected families.

Source International, as always, is on the front line to guarantee the effectiveness of the agreement and will monitor any further development.

• Official agreement (PDF)
  

Thanks to our work that demonstrate the health effect of massive pollution in Cerro de Pasco, and thanks to the continuous pressure of the local civil society, finally the government is taking some actions to protect the health of the children of Cerro de Pasco.

Last week two children of 11 and 13 years of age, from Cerro de Pasco were urgently hospitalized in Lima for a sever intoxication by heavy metals. According to local news (here the link) the pollution date back to a spill that occurred in 2016 but because nobody cleaned the area the kids are still suffering from it.

Since the beginning of 2018 these are only the last two of more than 20 children who have received attention at a national hospital; most of them thanks to reports from Source International.

But still, this is not enough. According to our last studies there are 82 children on 82 samples who present heavy metals intoxications. This represent 100% of the analyzed children; therefore, we can assume that all the kids between 5 and 15 years in Cerro de Pasco are intoxicated with heavy metals.

In March we will have a meeting with the Minister of health and with the office of the Prime Minister in Lima and we will ask attention to all the children in Cerro de Pasco. There are more than 10.000 children affected and we will fight until we will have attention to all of them.

Continue to support our project and we will obtain medical attention to all the kids of Cerro de Pasco!