Urban Environment- Lima, Peru

Lima, a megacity of 10.8 million inhabitants, houses almost a third of the entire country's population and is the industrial and commercial center of Peru. It equally serves as an important political and financial center, because of it being the country's capital, and it's carefully chosen site due to its proximity to the Pacific Ocean for international markets and distance from other large cities in the area. The megacity is continuing to grow as its metropolitan and urban area gradually takes over the rural and suburban areas of the city, which has both benefited and hurt it's economic status. Lima is categorized by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) as a Beta + city, meaning that it is properly economically integrated and an important contributor to the world economy through imports and exports.

Over the past few decades, Lima’s population has been steadily increasing, and along with it, the urban and metropolitan area of the megacity has been expanding to house the considerable amount of property needed to sustain such a community. While this expansion has left room for plenty of other purposes such as residential land, important commercial/industrial land and office space, it has been slowly eating away at the fertile agricultural land. Lima’s proximity to the equator and arid climate makes it an ideal to grow crops such as avocado, artichoke, asparagus and more, but in the couple of last years, with “economic prosperity and urban growth, Lima’s agricultural area has shrunk to about 125 sq km” (“Lima: Growing greener cities in Latin America and the Caribbean,” 2020), not only impacting quantity of produce they are able to export, an important source of money and trade for the megacity, but also creating lengthy distribution channels. Furthermore, the urban growth has taken a tole on the cities water resources, especially since Lima is considered to be a desert city, meaning the plants need constant watering to stay hydrated. The city heavily relies on the agricultural exports to support itself, and without it, would have to significantly increase either mining exports or industrial exports, but these would all create environmental damages that could be avoided if the city simply vacated more space for agriculture.

On the other hand, Lima’s urban growth has left it room to expand its commercial and industrial market, of which now accounts for 23% of the country’s gross domestic product. Since Lima is a megacity, it contains an increased number of inhabitants, of which will need jobs to support themselves, and many being of lower income families willing to do more labour intense, skilled or unskilled, jobs for money. Lima is recognized for industrial activities such as mining and manufacturing of low-order goods, industries that largely benefit off these workers, lowering unemployment rates, and in turn could possibly help improve future insufficient housing problems. The megacity’s proximity to the ocean also makes it a premier tourist destination and commercial port, with domestic and international imports and distribution/exchange of manufactured products and crops but also markets where local vendors may generate profits off of crowds of tourists. All of these financial opportunities and urban expansion have not only been beneficial to Lima’s overall economy, but it has raised the city’s GDP per capita to $31,181 through providing employment, improving overall quality of life and more commercial or industrial land to increase goods production and distribution.

Despite the situation improving over past decades, Lima has consistently remained a city that struggles with poverty and income/employment inequalities. Lima’s poverty rate is at the highest it’s ever been, with around 13.3% of the megacity’s population living below the absolute poverty line and 33% of the population living in the urban slums located near the downtown area. This is attributed to the growing socio-economic divide between the rich and the poor within the city, leading to inconsistent distribution of resources, increased crime rates, and inequalities in access to healthcare/levels of health.

The citizens of Lima are victims to status discrimination, with the elitist rich communities in San Isidro, San Juan De Miraflores and downtown Lima procuring a large portion of the potable water and giving themselves easy access by pumping it through their homes, while those who cant afford such luxury, pay almost ten times more for water, because of transportation costs. An instance where the separation of these two economic classes is easily distinguished presents itself by the towering 10-foot wall (shown on the right) that was constructed between the communities of San Juan De Miraflores and Surco, the wall put up an added physical barrier to the mental barrier that already separated these two groups of the city. On one side, a prospering economy with millions of dollars of residential and retail property with residents with stable office jobs. On the other, a community of people who need to construct their own homes for shelter and who depend on the informal economy of vendors selling goods or labour intense, minimum paying jobs to survive. “Peru’s wall was a response to a wave of migration from rural zones in the 1980s that was prompted by violence between the Peruvian government and the Shining Path, the Maoist guerrilla group” (Janetsky, 2019). Despite the economic inequality present through the megacity, Lima had a high employment rate of 93.4 % in 2017, but of the employed population 34.3% were underemployed and not making as much as they could be for their skill level or getting the healthcare benefits they need.

Another consequence of this separation and income inequality has been the rise in crime rates, with the crime index rising above 70% in heavily populated and center town areas. The map above shows the correlation between the districts in Lima that have the highest crime rates, along with a map of the slum areas and developing young towns. These two maps side by side make it easy to compare how crime seems to increase around up in coming areas as well as in the central areas near slums, but not generally not directly in the slums. This substantial amount of crimes ranging from pickpocketing, to murder may be influenced by drug distribution in poor communities, causing many to become dependant on drugs, exhausting their already insignificant supply of money, keeping them within the cycle of poverty. Many may equally find themselves relying on selling drugs to make money to support themselves and their families as it is easier than finding employment elsewhere. Families living in the wealthier areas of the city are most often the targets of the violent crimes because they have the most assets to possibly take and resell to make money, or criminals may attack them out of jealousy and spite. All in all, Lima and the peruvian government need to put more effort into supplying resources to those living in underprivileged areas and slums as well as ensure proper employment and housing to maintain health, peace and reduce crime rates throughout the city.