Río Rímac

The Río Rímac or Río Hablador is a river of the Peru, pertaining to the basin of the Pacific Ocean in which it is thrown, close to the port of Callao, after having sprinkled the town of Lima, at the end of a course of 160 kilometers since its source, with more than 5.000 meters of Altitude, in the Western slope of the Andes cordillera.

The name “ Rímac ” is a word of origin Quechua meaning “to speak”, this is why the river was called “ El Río Hablador ” (the River speaker).

Río Rímac is regarded as one of the most important rivers of Peru, not by its flow of water - relatively weak - nor by the size of its basin, but because it supplies in Eau and electricity the Métropole of Lima, where concentrates more than 30% of the population of the country. The water provision of the Peruvian capital is one of the critical problems that the authorities did not manage to solve during the last decades, and each day it becomes - with the demographic explosion - acuter, requiring frequent cuts in the distribution of water.

Situation

Rímac is located between the parallels 11° 27 ' and 12° 11 ' of Southern latitude and the meridian lines 76° 06 ' and 77° 11 ' of Western longitude. It has a basin of 3.389 km ² by including those of its principal Affluent S, the Río Santa Eulalia (1 097,7 km ²) and the Río Blanco (193,7 km ²). It takes its source in the Western slope of the Andes cordillera, at an altitude of 5.508 meters, in the Nevado Paca (Province of Huarochirí, in the department of Lima).

Parallel to Río Rímac the will carretera central (central road) and a railway rise in the Cordillera, crossing the Col of Ticlio to 4.758 meters of altitude, to arrive to the mining city of Oroya, in the department of Junín, before being divided into two, worms the South and the other towards North.

In the basin of Río Rímac we can moreover find the factory of Water treatment which feeds the agglomeration of Lima, called Atarjea , as well as the hydroelectric stations of Barbablanca and Pablo Bhoner .

However, ecologist organizations Peruvian have launched cry of alarm in connection with Rímac, whose water is very strongly contaminated by waste water (and sometimes the refuse) of the urban centres (Morococha, San Mateo, Matucana, Chosica, Chaclacayo, etc), which are poured there without preliminary treatment, because of the absence of purification plants (too much expensive).

Hydrology

The flow of Rímac can strongly vary according to the seasons. Thus, for example, for the period January - June 2006, it lay between 19,2 m3/s (minimal level statement the June 7th 2006) and 80,1 m3/s (maximum level statement the March 26th 2006).

Reserved zone

In 1998, the supreme decree Nº 023-98-AG. December 23rd 1998 created the reserved Zone - one thus calls areas which, gathering the conditions to be regarded as natural Zones protégées' , ask for the realization of complementary studies in order to determine, amongst other things, the extent and the category which will correspond to each one - Valley of Río Rímac. This zone covers a portion of 28 kilometers of the river, and relates to the districts of Cercado of Lima, Chaclacayo, San Juan de Lurigancho and Ate Vitarte of the Province of Lima.

This zone shelters a very diversified fauna. One finds there species like the kestrels of America ( falco sparverius ), which use the rock cornices as places of rest and guet. On banks of the river, bordered by a low vegetation, one meets birds like the southern troglodyte ( trogloceryle musculus ), the Martin-pêcheur ( Chloroceryle americana ), the Canard of the Bahamas ( Anas bahamensis ), various kinds of Héron S like the snow-covered Aigrette ( Egreta thula ), the white Ibis ( Eudocimus albus ), the Héron buff-backed herons ( Bulbulcus ibis ) and the gray Bihoreau ( Nycticorax nycticorax ).

See too

List of rivers in the world
Lima
Peru

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