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A major earthquake occurred at 01:55:39 (UTC) on Monday, September 26, 2005.
The magnitude 7.5 event has been located in NORTHERN PERU.
The hypocentral depth was estimated to be 127 km (79 miles).
Pucallpa - background
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Altitude 148m asl (486ft)
Pucallpa • Information and pics • more
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With a population of approximately 400,000, Pucallpa is Peru’s fastest growing jungle town, situated on the banks of the Ucayali river in the heart of the Amazon basin.
Like most third world communities, it has all the problems associated with hastily built frontier towns: bad roads, a lack of even the most basic sanitation facilities, and various other economic deprivations. Most of the population live a subsistence existence in one or two roomed wooden huts. Medical and educational facilities are severely limited.
Pucallpa is a commercial centre and the logging, rubber and oil industries provide much of its revenue and contribute much to the rapid deforestation of the area.
Peru Travels
Pucallpa is the capital of the department of Ucayali and one of the most progressive cities in the Peruvian Amazon. Industrial activity revolves around logging and agriculture. The region was first inhabited by the Pano tribe, who settled all along the Ucayali River and its tributary streams.
The river, discovered in 1577 by Spanish captain Juan Salinas de Loyola, is one of the most important trade routes in the central jungle.
The jungle teems with dense green undergrowth, which is reflected in the many rivers and lakes that dot the region. Lake Yarinacocha, just minutes from Pucallpa, is an ideal spot for rest and recreation. The area features jungle lodges where visitors can practice water sports such as water skiing, swimming, rowing and sports fishing in the clear waters.
The area is also inhabited by several ethnic groups who are the descendants of the legendary Pano tribe, such as the communities of San Francisco, Nuevo Destino and Santa Clara. They are hospitable folk who live in picturesque housing and offer for sale all kinds of arts crafts decorated with geometric figures.
Another attraction in the area is the Chullachaqui Botanical Garden, a beautiful spot where visitors can study a large variety of plant species used in traditional medicine.
During Carnival in the Ucayali region and the Festival of San Juan, amidst trade fairs and dances, the people of Ucayali choose their beauty queens in pageants.
Shipibo-Conibo people
The Shipibo-Conibo consist of around 35,000 people living in three to four hundred villages located north and south of the town of Pucallpa on the Ucayali River, which connects Cuzco to the Brazilian Amazon.
They speak a language of the Panoan family, though some of them are starting to learn Spanish. Despite 300 years of sporadic contact with white or mestizo civilization, and massive conversion to Christianity in the 1950’s and 60’s the Shipibo-Conibos maintain a strong identity and retain their ancient ways. They are known for their intricate designs on their pottery and their bright clothing.
The Shipibo-Conibos are primarily hunters and fishermen, using some slash and burn farming, and still today none of the villages use electricity; machetes and spears are the primary tools. All of the villages use barter for trade, but their proximity to the burgeoning town of Pucallpa makes it inevitable that the people will soon be drawn into modern trade and exploitation.
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Environmental Health
Pucallpa is a vibrant frontier town. First settled just over a hundred years ago, it is now home to a quarter of a million inhabitants. The main source of income is timber, with the heavy scent of sawdust hanging thick in the air after a downpour. Twenty per cent of the people scratching a living here have been driven out of the Amazon rainforest by deforestation, terrorism and the cocaine trade, which saps nutrients from the soil. Most of the remainder have become economic migrants fleeing the hardships of the arid coastal region and the Andes.
Migration was at its fiercest between 1991 and 1995, when Peru was in the grip of civil war. Farmers and agricultural workers came to Pucallpa by the thousand as government troops fought brutally with Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path, a revolutionary terrorist group, for control of the region. It was during this period that the sprawling slums, now home to over 80 per cent of Pucallpa's population, grew, spawning disease from contaminated water and poor sanitation.
"Health education is very difficult here as many different cultures are coming to Pucallpa from the Andes, the coast and the dry forest, while some of the population are indigenous and do not speak Spanish," says Dr Luis Alberto, a local doctor studying a public health masters at the local university. People still believe Shamans can cure every sickness, he explains. So it is only when children are close to death that the mother or father will go to the hospital, often when it is too late.
According to Dr Alberto, who has worked in the rural villages and the local hospital, diarrhoea is the main cause of illness in the region. Other disease such as pneumonia, respiratory disease, skin infections and intestinal worms from contaminated water are also behind the region's high rates of infant morbidity and mortality. "Chlorination is not the solution to building a system of potable water in Pucallpa. Thirty per cent of people have drinkable water, the rest use different sources and wells, but water chlorination is only a short-term solution. Only a few people are getting chlorinated water because they don't like the taste, so they end up drinking contaminated water," says Dr Alberto.
But the problem is not just drinking water, poor sanitation is also at the root of the spread of disease. From October to March, the rainy season starts with frequent heavy downpours at least once a day making travel by road almost impossible. Surface water builds up on the impermeable red clay on which Pucallpa is built causing flooding. The slums have no drains or sewers, so surface water acts as a vector for the spread of pathogens. Between April and October, the red clay bakes in the dry season as temperatures climb to above 35¡C. It is impossible to build pit latrines, as the clay provides no drainage, so a night soil system is used. Raised toilets enable faeces to be mixed with ash and then piled in a communal area. But in the fierce tropical sun it turns to dust, again spreading disease.
According to the Institute of National Statistic of Peru, figures for the region of Pucallpa for 2000 show that one in three children under five suffer malnutrition and almost one in two have anaemia - intestinal worms being the main cause. One in four children are suffering diarrhoeal disease at any one time, with infant mortality at 5 per cent for under ones and 8 per cent for under fives.
But unlike Africa, where white four-wheeled-drive vehicles advertise the presence of the major aid agencies, this corner of the developing world has been left to fend for itself, with the exception of missionaries, some USAid projects and a handful of small charities. In addition, there is no tradition of public health within local government - Latin America has no equivalent profession to EHOs.
