Peru’s Scope For Development

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30635, 29 December 1964, Page 1

Peru’s Scope For Development

With an estimated 50 per cent of its population economically inactive, Peru is making a determined effort to improve educational standards and strengthen its internal situation, according to Mr Ernesto Henriod, a Peruvian civil engineer, who, with his Christchurch-born wife, is visiting New Zealand for six weeks.

Many of this half of the country's population lived primitively in isolated areas and were, in the main, of the Inca race, he said in an interview yesterday. New roads were being constructed into these areas, and within the next few years access would be available to the larger centres. Education was now free and compulsory for all children of primary-school age, and a law passed recently made it compulsory for all employers of illiterate workers to provide them with education. Politically and economically, Peru was, however, still one of the most stable countries in South America, said Mr Henriod. The country’s fishing industry was the greatest in the world, and

fishing-boat skippers could earn between £5OO and £6OO a month. Living conditions were generally good, although wages for unskilled workers were low. “A labourer working with a spade, for instance, would get 10s a day," he said. "A driller might earn up to 30s a day." Wages for professional men were higher than those in England or New Zealand. The cost of living, however, was higher, with butter, an imported, highly-taxed item, selling at 5s per lb. Mr Henriod is engaged on a large hydro-electric power scheme which, when completed, will supply 2jm kilowatts to the country's grid. The first stage, to provide 300,000 kilowatts, will cost an estimated £6om to £7oiu. 12-mile Tunnel The station is being built on the Mantaro river—a headwater tributary of the Amazon river—in the central highlands of Peru. The project involves the drilling of a tunnel 12 miles long to provide a drop of 2600 ft to the station’s turbines.

The works camp will eventually accommodate an estimated 4800 employees of the four European firms concerned. Construction of the camp has just been started. When completed—possibly in the 1980s —the scheme will be the largest in South America and one of the largest in the world. Mr Henriod, who is senior engineer and assistant to the project manager, hopes to visit the Manapouri and Benmore hydro projects while he is in New Zealand.