Римак өзені: Перудің маңызды су көзі

Peruvian river

The Rímac River ˈri. mak is located in western Peru and is the most important source of potable water for the Lima and Callao Metropolitan Area. It belongs to the Pacific Slope, into which it flows after bathing the cities of Lima and Callao, together with the Chillón River, to the north, and the Lurín River, to the south. It is 204 km long and has a basin of 3,312 km², of which 2,237.2 km² is a humid basin. The basin has a total of 191 lagoons, of which only 89 have been studied. The river begins in the highlands of the Huarochirí Province in the Lima Region and its mouth is located in Callao, near Jorge Chávez International Airport. The Rímac Valley (lang es) runs alongside the river, and is one of three valleys in the city of Lima. The city of Lima is located on the delta shaped valley, as are various towns such as Matucana, Ricardo Palma, Chosica, Chaclacayo and Vitarte, small cities that function as strategic points between the coast and central mountains of Peru. It has a total surface of 3,700 km2. In addition, according to a legend, its origin is based on the sacrifice of Rímac, the son of the god Inti, and his sister Chaclla, to free men from a drought. And that if you find yourself on the river bank, you will hear his voice telling stories, hence the name. The Spanish misunderstood Lima instead of Rímac, which led to the city receiving the former name, as a derivation of it because its pronunciation had been deformed. However, the term Limaq, without being appropriate in highland Quechua, seems to have been the original in the coastal varieties of Quechua and also in the Mochica language, which preceded Quechua in that area. The decrease in the flow of the Rímac during the dry season, in addition to the constant growth of Lima, prevented a good supply of drinking water in the city. For this reason, in 1962 the Peruvian government carried out the water transfer project from the Marcapomacocha lagoon, which belongs to the Mantaro river basin, through a 10 kilometre siphon shaped tunnel at 4,000 mamsl that crosses several glaciers.

In 1998, the Reserved Zone of the Rímac River Valley was created, which is located between the districts of Lima, Chaclacayo, San Juan de Lurigancho and Ate of the Province of Lima, and tries to take care of the cleanliness and landscape environment of area. Its extension is the one that covers a strip of 28 km. Currently, work is being done on its margins, in different areas, in order to recover its beauty, which has been greatly diminished in recent decades since it is used as a garbage dump by the inhabitants of its margins, in addition to being the draining place of sewage systems. This area is home to species of fauna such as the falco sparverius, which uses the waterfalls of the ravines as resting and stalking places. On the banks of rivers with low vegetation, birds such as the gargantuan duck (Anas bahamensis), herons such as the Egretta thula, the Eudocimus albus, the Bubulcus ibis and the Nycticorax nycticorax have been found.

The river and its surroundings have been the target of several projects, be they to improve the quality of the river or to build structures, such as esplanades surrounding it. Name Year Description Puerto de Lima 19th century The Condado de la Vega del Ren family, a noble family from Lima, proposed making the river a navigable channel with their proposal for the "Port of Lima", through what was formerly the Palacio Veneciano. Project by Felipe Arancivia 1872–1889 New attempts to channel the land between the Balta and Piedra bridges took place between 1872 and 1889 in a 19th century urbanization plan, projected by the engineer Felipe Arancivia, but due to a miscalculation of the budget, it was canceled in 1909. Malecón del Rímac 1920s In the government of Augusto Leguía, a promenade (also known as the Alameda or Malecón Leguía) was developed, in order to beautify the cutwater of the river during the 1920s. However, it would be demolished at the end of the century. Gran Parque del Río Hablador 1990s Part of the Plan Maestro Centro de Lima al 2010, one of several proposals during the 1990s. Proyecto Las Lagunas del Rímac 2009 It would seek to convert the riverbanks into ecological lungs, by forming artificial lakes (10 small rectangular lagoons), between the Balta and Santa Rosa bridges, which will adorn the Rímac Malecón, forming a Cultural Corridor of the Historic Center together with the Parque de la Muralla and the University Park. Also in that year, efforts were made to channel parts of the section of the River. Proyecto Río Verde 2011 During the management of Susana Villarán, by the urban architect Augusto Ortiz de Zevallos, the project, also known as the Vía Parque Rímac, was proposed, which sought to recover the banks of the river by redirecting it in order to gain land in the riverside for the creation of a 25 hectare park of green areas with riverside bridges and the development of recreational circuits (such as a theatre for 8,000 people and a Central Park of Lima, known as the Cantagallo Grand Recreational Park), including an artificial lagoon, small squares, avenues and swimming pools public fed with river water. A housing program for the Shipibo community of Cantagallo was also included. However, the management of Luis Castañeda suspended it for the by pass project of the Vía expressa Línea Amarilla (an underground tunnel that crosses the Rímac that managed to inaugurate in 2018). Although the current mayor of Lima, Rafael López Aliaga, has considered its reactivation in 2023. Proyecto Especial Paisajístico Río Rímac 2014 Part of the Plan Maestro del Centro Histórico de Lima al 2035, through which the Metropolitan Municipality of Lima seeks its recovery as a water, urban and historical landscape, as well as developing it as a metropolitan ecological corridor. Proposal by Martín Vizcarra 2017 Due to the El Niño phenomenon, Vizcarra proposed channeling three kilometres of the river to avoid overflows and road collapses due to landslides in sections of the Central Highway. Parque Fluvial Rímac 2017 The Lima Design Network proposed a contest of ideas under the name for which several architects from competing universities had to propose projects to save the relationship between the river and the city at an urban and public services level, in order to safeguard the limits between nature and the appropriation of man. South Korean led project 2012–present During the year 2012, the government of South Korea was invited in a project for the recovery of the Rimac and the Huaycoloro River, due to its experience of the Korean government in the recovery of the four rivers that cross the city of Daegu, a delay was estimated ten years for recovery. In 2013, a Rímac recovery project was proposed by the municipalities of San Mateo and Chaclacayo, with the support of the National Water Authority (ANA). In 2015, the final report of the Korean government was presented, through the South Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), and new agreements were signed, selecting the companies K water, Yooshin Eng. and Pyunghwa Eng. The estamated cost was US$ 1,000 million. A Master Plan for the Restoration of the Rímac River was re proposed in 2017 to clean its river waters and reuse its treated waters in the Taboada Wastewater Treatment Plant, estimating a delay of two to three years. In 2021, research was carried out by Aquafondo to study the water quality in the Chirilu region (Rio Chillon, Rimac and Lurín) for the development of the project, and the CAF – Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean was invited to finance the work.