Community Resilience and a Culture of Hydration and Health

For years, Peru's most vulnerable communities have raised their voices about water, about sanitation. These communities not only demand it, but insist on a deeper issue: water is a basic right, not a privilege. This initiative addresses this point. It seeks to be a voice for expanding access for those who need it most, yes, but also to confront society with the daily reality these communities face: limited infrastructure, fragile systems, and solutions that are not always lasting. Ensuring every home is connected and water is flowing is a crucial milestone, but it is only the beginning. The real challenge is systemic and extends far beyond physical infrastructure.

Our study, Water, Health and Development: Perspectives on Drinking Water Consumption in Vulnerable Areas of South Lima, reveals a critical conclusion for understanding this problem. Public health and sanitation initiatives led by the state and NGOs must be strictly community-centred. Providing physical infrastructure is not enough; it must be paired with the strengthening of community networks and a genuine commitment to understanding the local water culture.

Physical access and its functioning are vital, but safe hydration also depends on people's trust, affordability, and daily habits. Based on this, and with the mission of contributing to closing the gap between the structural changes expected by residents and the safe consumption of drinking water, we established HidroRed, an advocacy initiative designed to serve as a direct bridge between local communities and relevant institutions. Using our research as a foundation, our goal is to foster inter-institutional collaboration and promote both the right to water and its safe consumption.

Research Context

In 2023, Peru faced severe economic challenges, leaving 23% of the population struggling with poverty. While this figure is alarming, it is even more troubling that many of these families continue to face a persistent reality: they lack access to basic services.

This issue is a focal point for citizens, the State, and non-governmental organisations such as the NGO Peruanos x Peruanos, with whom we collaborated in order to help them gain an in-depth understanding of the families’ habits and attitudes regarding access to and consumption of drinking water to design meaningful interventions.

To this end, we focused our study on South Lima, specifically on four districts characterised by housing settlements in geographically precarious areas and with poverty levels of up to 46%. There, our sampling base consisted of more than 46,000 households located in approximately 434 informal settlements. We scaled this information with public opinion questions at the national level in order to contrast the results. In addition, as part of our mixed-methods research, we not only interviewed 317 households but also centred our perspective on the voices of leaders of community kitchens, local health sector workers, neighbourhood representatives, and mothers. Through ethnographic techniques and testimonial interviews, we achieved a multidimensional understanding of both everyday practices and the barriers they face in their daily lives.

Key Findings

1. Unequal access and higher costs

• 41.7% of households depend on tanker trucks or communal taps to obtain water for their homes.

• Families spend an average of S/ 35.2 per month on water, and some pay up to S/ 150, which can represent spending three times more than a household connected to the public water network.

• 67% pay for water even when part of the supply is subsidised, due to mobility, location, and the infrastructure conditions of their homes. This is not only a service gap. It is an informal water market where the poorest pay more for a less reliable supply.

2. Low trust in water quality

• Only 14% of the surveyed households believe that the water they use in their homes is safe to drink.

• 94.9% trust boiled water as a method of disinfection. Trust decreases to 53.6% for bottled water and to 52.3% for manually chlorinated water.

• Many store water in tanks or open containers, which increases the risk of contamination.

People are aware of the risks, but daily limitations influence their decisions.

3. Gaps in health and hydration

• Only 15% meet the recommended levels of water intake.

• 72% know they should drink 2 to 3 litres per day. However, only 45% show adequate hydration according to urine colour tests.

• 20% do not treat the water they consume due to cost or access barriers. Knowledge alone does not change behaviour; systemic conditions must enable it.

Implications for Policy and Practice

The results indicate that understanding the population's habits is key; interventions must move beyond mere access and quality to adopt a holistic approach—one that integrates economic realities, community empowerment, education, and institutional collaboration. While state policies and joint efforts need to expand infrastructure and ensure its proper functioning, they must also consider the following:

• The economic impact on the most vulnerable families. This is because there is a financial burden associated with the purchase and adaptation of water systems among the poorest households.

• The importance of local organisation and its representativeness. There are neighbourhood networks led by community leaders and organisations that are already working on joint solutions, and their voice is important because of their knowledge of local realities and the management of water issues within the territory.

• The promotion of drinking water consumption and its implications for health as part of public health intervention guidelines. The focus should not remain on temporary campaigns or short-term communication efforts, but rather on rethinking this issue as a long-term policy aimed at educating the population for prevention.

• The collaboration between institutions as a vital point for joint work, ensuring that institutions such as the Ministry of Housing, Construction and Sanitation, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of the Environment share information, projects, and agreements, not only to continue service provision, but to approach the population with comprehensive information and a full understanding of the problem as a whole.

Beyond Data

What we saw during the fieldwork is that, when the State is absent or infrastructure does not reach everyone, people do not simply wait. They find ways. Neighbours share water, coordinate informally, keep an eye on supply, and step in for each other when something fails. These networks are not secondary. They are what keep daily life running. So any long-term solution that ignores this existing trust and organisation is likely to miss the point. The community is not an obstacle to intervention; it is the starting point.

At the same time, one of the findings that stayed with us has to do with how people understand hydration. In many households, satisfying thirst is not necessarily linked to drinking safe water. Often, it simply means consuming whatever liquid is available at the moment. That detail may seem small, but it changes everything. It tells us that the challenge is not only technical, but also behavioural and cultural. You cannot change this by handing out brochures or running short campaigns. It requires understanding daily routines, economic pressures, and habits formed over the years. More importantly, it means showing that choosing safe water is a way of caring for one’s family. It is about protection, dignity, and empowerment, not just about compliance.

All of this leads to a broader reflection. The communities we worked with are already doing their part under difficult conditions. The question now is whether institutions are willing to meet them halfway. This is an invitation to ministries, NGOs, and private organisations to move beyond designing projects from behind a desk and instead build on the realities that already exist. The evidence is here. The networks are there. What is needed is collaboration that respects local knowledge and turns it into lasting solutions.

About the Research

This project was developed by Leila Quevedo and Brennda Huarcaya within the framework of the Research Got Talent Global Competition 2024 by Esomar, representing Peru. It received financial support from APEIM, the Asociación Peruana de Empresas de Investigación de Mercados, as part of their recognition of the national winners of Research Got Talent Perú 2024.

Beyond the competition itself, the intention behind the study was quite simple. We wanted to bring data closer to people. This research focuses not only on using statistics to demonstrate inequality, but also on truly understanding what those statistics mean in our daily lives. The main objective is to discover actions, however small, that can contribute to reducing the gaps between people. The research seeks to connect facts with people's real feelings and use information to help the communities it targets. Researching inequality means connecting hard evidence with genuine empathy to truly serve the communities affected by it.