Drain construction in Ayacucho.

Sub titled – how many ways builders are able to ignore basic safety rules during construction! The city of Ayacucho is built on the side of a ‘mountain’, or it seems like that when you are walking the streets, so when it rains the water has only one way to go – down! And seeing the rain pours, the water flows down very fast! You can imagine what the ‘up/down’ streets become, virtually fast flowing rivers.


Although the gutters are deep and the footpath well above the level of the street it does make for an interesting experience when you want to cross the road! At the least you tend to get two shoes full of water, at the worst you could be swept away to the lower regions of the city! You must also keep in mind the perils associated with the bus and car traffic racing past and sending out significant bow waves! And if this does not get you, the rain water pouring off the overhanging roofs will! The joys of being a pedestrian in Ayacucho on a rainy day.
Well you may ask what is the answer to all this?
The City fathers have devised and excellent plan to drain away any amount of rain water by constructing a substantial drainage system for the major ‘up/down’ streets; four or five streets in the first phase of development.


First you dig up the center of the street and then construct a huge concrete box drain with a cross section of at least two meter square. The fill you take from the street you pile up in any side streets ready to be replaced at a later date!

Concrete ‘lids’ are then placed over the box drain; these lids have regular rectangular openings to allow the rain water to quickly drain away.


During the entire process you make sure that all the yellow safety barriers are in place, all construction material a stacked ready for use again…

and pedestrian crossovers are soundly constructed of old eucalypt tree trunks overlaid with bags of sand.

Where you have a major street crossing to negotiate the construction workers have built solid bridges that cater for loaded buses, cars, motor taxis and motor bikes.
The end result of all this is that construction has ground to a halt! Why? The city of Ayacucho has run out of finance and nothing can be restarted until more money is found!
And another issue with all this unfinished work is that during ‘Semana Santa’, or Holy Week, Ayacucho is crowded with both locals and tourists for their famous processions, parades and other ceremonies lasting for over a week and some of the normal routes will be out of bounds due to continuing construction.