Public health and municipal water policies in Colonial Lima, Peru, 1535–1635

Abstract

In 1535, Peru’s governor, Francisco Pizarro, ordered the relocation of the Spanish settlement at Jauja, located in the central highlands, to Lima, located in the Rimac River Valley. Pizarro chose Lima’s location in part based on its coastal location and the presence of two irregularly flowing rivers: the Rimac and the Chillon. Both rivers brought fresh water from the Andes Mountains and ran a winding course all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Indigenous people living in the valley channeled its water to irrigate hundreds of miles of land; creating a hydraulic network that supported agriculture, fruit trees, alder, and willow in an otherwise coastal desert. Despite royal mandates and Iberian precedents to leave irrigation systems acquired via conquest unchanged, Lima’s municipal government disrupted the indigenous water network from the moment of foundation. Town councilmen justified these actions by linking the urban water supply to human health. This connection was based on three interrelated policies: (1) the rights and responsibilities of irrigators; (2) sanitation; and (3) dividing the city physically to minimize effects of disease and pollution. All of these policies influenced human relationships with water in the city, and provided a means for the town council to extend its jurisdiction over urban and rural spaces and their inhabitants.