Race for Water made landfall on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, on 15 March 2018, and will continue to be anchored off the Yacht Club de La Punta in Callao through until 20 May 2018, at which point she will cast off for Valparaiso in Chile. Part one of the stopover has seen multiple exchanges and lots of opportunities to learn about the situation regarding plastic pollution in Peru. Furthermore, the Race for Water team in charge of putting in place projects to recover waste is remaining on site for the next two months to continue to give concrete expression to the discussions already initiated.
Lima 1: SHARE (on-board tours and exhibition)
Part one of this stopover concluded late last week with a Beach Clean Up in collaboration with the NGO WWF, which gathered together 400 volunteers and enabled 2 tonnes of waste to be recovered!
As is the case with every one of the stopovers on the Race for Water Odyssey, the Foundation’s teams are rallying together to raise awareness among the greatest number of local people, from students, to decision-makers, representatives, entrepreneurs and environmental protagonists. We have to admit that the enthusiasm drummed up by the presence of the Race for Water catamaran has been incredible. We’ve hosted and welcomed nearly 400 children aboard the boat, over 350 local entrepreneurs, 27 attendees for the “Plastic Waste to Energy” workshop and 35 politicians, who hosted an inter-ministerial committee on-board to coordinate the establishing of environmentally-friendly projects for the conservation of coastal areas. It was the perfect opportunity for our President, Marco Simeoni and the Minister of the Environment Ms Elza Galarza to meet up.
Camille Rollin, head of ACT for the Race for Water Foundation: “The Peruvians have shown such great enthusiasm for the project! The welcome has been fantastic! Unfortunately, we cannot accept all the requests we receive each day. However, we are very happy with this first part of the Lima stopover, where the emphasis was mainly on education as we welcomed nearly 400 students aboard of varying ages. The Clean-Up operation on Agua Dulce beach, which was organised by the WWF to celebrate our visit to Chorrillos, enabled 400 super motivated volunteers to come together to pick up nearly two tonnes of waste in a matter of hours. That demonstrates two things: there is still a huge amount of educational work to be done on the ground so that the local population feels more concerned about the conservation of its environment, but also that a growing section of this same population is seeking to broaden its awareness.”
Lima 2: ACT (presentation of the solutions)
Numerous local protagonists, notably entrepreneurs and social investors, who are committed to sustainable projects which provide answers to the problems they face in their home countries, like that of plastic pollution, came to chat with the team aboard Race for Water. It is with this smaller latter group, which is fully dedicated to the implementation of energy recovery projects involving plastic waste in Peru, that work will continue for the next two months.
Frédéric Sciacca, Head of ACT in Lima working on behalf of the Foundation: “Within the context of the ACT programme and the search for solutions, we’re now going to focus our attention on the methods of collection, management and recovery of plastic waste on a local level. The context of Lima will enable us to get a better understanding of the unofficial collection mechanism, which is extremely dynamic in Peru. We will also need to meet with numerous protagonists from public and private associations in order to identify where the implementation of our model’s complete value chain will make the most sense and have the most positive impact.”
The Foundation’s ACT team comprises Camille Rollin, Frédéric Sciacca, as well as a native Peruvian for this stopover, Jimena Collantes-Ortiz, who is very involved in life in Lima: “As a Peruvian, it’s an honour to be part of the Lima stopover. We’re working with a highly professional team and one that is passionate about the work we’re doing. It’s a privilege to have a vessel as unique as the Race for Water catamaran here. I’m convinced that the answer to my country’s needs is embodied in the solution put forward by Race for Water. We’ve already had a chance to contact the key protagonists involved in the implementation of the Waste to Energy project. To my mind, we have a great potential to incorporate this here and my wish, as ambitious as it is, is to be able to have a serious impact in every corner of Peru. The best is yet to come.”