Key policies and governance approach

A major step recently taken to address solid waste issues in Peru is the adoption of the 2017 Integrated Solid Waste Management Act [23]. The law aims to ensure the healthy, environmentally suitable, and economically feasible management of solid waste by implementing integrated management schemes. The Ministry of the Environment is implementing programmes to support municipalities in improving their waste management schemes and investing in integrated waste management systems. Steps are also being taken to adopt extended producers’ responsibility in e-waste management. The Law that Regulates Single-use Plastic and Disposable Containers [24] is a significant step towards reducing plastic waste in Peruvian seas [1], [2], [9], [10].

The government of Peru has identified 31 Priority Attention Zones (ZAPs) that host 58% of the country’s population and, because of their conditions, warrant priority attention to improve air quality. As of 2021, 14 ZAPs have already officially adopted and are implementing Action Plans for Improving Air Quality, other ZAPs are in the process of formulating their Action Plans or are already formally adopting them.

Various regulations and policies targeting the transport sector have been adopted over the last years. These include phasing out the commercialization and use of low-sulphur diesel and setting lower maximum allowable limits on emissions from motorcars supplied with Euro IV technology [25]. The Urban Transport Authority of Lima and Callao was created in 2018 with the purpose of constructing an integrated urban transport network in the Lima Metropolitan area, Callao, and the provinces [26]. The Urban Transport Policy [27] and the National Programme for Sustainable Urban Transport [28] were adopted in 2019. The national programme aims to promote integrated transport systems in Peruvian cities, with a focus on sustainable urban mobility and increased use of clean energy. A regulation aimed to take old vehicles out from circulation and thus renewing the country’s fleet was recently approved [29]. An official standard setting limits on the sulphur content of diesel, gasoline, and gasoline/alcohol mixtures for their commercialization and use [30] was approved in 2017. Low-sulphur gasoline and gasoline/alcohol mixtures are now being sold countrywide since 2018 and low-sulphur diesel is sold in 18 of the 24 country’s departments.

As there is insufficient regulation of the environmental impacts of the industrial sector, the Government of Peru has set Environmental Quality Standards, maximum allowable limits, and other regulatory instruments. As infrastructure for air quality monitoring needs to be improved, the Public Investment Program “Improvement and Expansion of the National Services for Environmental Quality” [31] includes a subcomponent specifically devoted to establishing six air quality monitoring networks in provinces.

Policy instruments aimed at the protection and sustainable management of the country’s water resources were recently issued and adopted. These include: the 2013 National Plan for Water Resources [32], which sets guidelines to reduce/mitigate the impact of water polluting sources by implementing Integrated Water Resources Management. The 2015 National Policy and Strategy of Water Resources [33] envisions (Policy Axis 2) strengthening the monitoring of water quality in the country’s water bodies, as well as identifying and inventorying pollution sources affecting natural water bodies. The 2016 National Strategy for the Improvement of the Quality of Water Resources [13] defines technical, regulatory, and management interventions for the 2016–2025 period along three lines of action: restoring or improving the quality of water resources; protecting water resources; and institutional strengthening for water resources management.

Implementation of such policies is supported by regulatory instruments specifically aimed at protecting or improving quality of Peru’s water resources. These include: (i) Water Quality Standards for various designated uses, including production of potable water; recreation; extraction or cultivation of fish, shellfish, and wildlife; agriculture (crop irrigation and consumption by livestock), and conservation of natural aquatic ecosystems [34]; (ii) Maximum Allowable Limits for wastewaters from critical emitters such as the fishery [35] and the mining and metallurgical [15] industries; and (iii) Analytical methods and test procedures to be used for measuring water quality variables included in Water Quality Standards [36].

SUCCESSES AND REMAINING CHALLENGES

Significant progress has been made in improving the policy and regulatory framework for solid waste management, improving air quality in urban zones, and addressing water pollution. However, their implementation is challenging.

The large investments needed for the proper collection, treatment, recovery, and disposal of solid and hazardous waste might delay or hinder their implementation, given the limited resources and capacities of local governments. Data on the generation and management of non-municipal waste, particularly hazardous waste, is very limited or entirely absent, which limits traceability and overseeing.

Local-level Action Plans for Improving Air Quality encompass interventions ranging from air quality data and environmental education, through mechanisms for enforcing compliance with environmental standards, to wide-ranging, costly measures such as the use of improved fuels and motor vehicles and improving urban planning and transport systems. Most action plans fail to identify mechanisms for financing their implementation.

The lack of comprehensive, systematic air quality data limits the enforcement of and overseeing of compliance with Air Quality Standards; this is particularly important in those localities where Action Plans are being implemented. Similarly, data on pollutants released from fixed sources (industrial plants) are scarce or absent, which limits the capacity of environmental authorities to identify the emitters, assign liabilities, and formulate corrective measures. Solving the issues posed by the transport sector on the air quality of urban zones involves major high-cost interventions such as modernizing the vehicle fleet, making improved fuels widely available, improving urban transport systems, and regulating and properly planning the future growth of urban areas.

Addressing the underlying causes of water pollution involves long-term, large-scale, costly interventions including the collection and proper treatment of most of the municipal wastewater generated across the country, preventing or reducing the environmental impact of artisanal mining operations, promoting a more rational use of agrochemicals, the remediation and reclamation of legacy contaminated sites across the country, and others.

Goals and Ambitions

The 2013 National Plan for Water Resources [32] aims to properly treat 99% of the municipal wastewaters generated in rural and urban zones of the Pacific region and urban zones of the Amazon and Titicaca hydrographic regions.

The National Environmental Plan (2011-2021) [37] aims to achieve full compliance with Water Quality Standards in all the 159 hydrographic regions of the country by 2021.

The 2021 National Environmental Policy [38] envisions that, by 2030, environmental obligations for reducing emissions of polluting gases have been met and sanitary landfills have been implemented in priority cities. To attain this, two approaches are proposed: strengthening the regulation and overseeing of environmental compliance by economic activities agents, as well as strengthening the regulation, prohibition, or phasing out of equipment and materials that degrade environmental quality and implementing schemes of environmental self-regulation and self-overseeing of the market. The Policy includes two Priority Objectives on this regard: OP3. Reduce air, water, and soil pollution, and OP 4. Increase the proper disposal of solid waste.