Stories of Impact: Protecting school infrastructure against earthquake risks in Peru

Metropolitan Lima is subject to frequent seismic activity that can damage critical infrastructure such as schools and threaten the lives of schoolchildren. In Lima and Callao, more than 64 percent of schools are highly vulnerable to earthquakes. This leaves more than 600,000 children at risk.To mitigate damage, protect students against the impact of earthquakes, and support their educational development the Peruvian Ministry of Education, in partnership with the World Bank and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), is working to strengthen the structural and functional conditions of school infrastructure in the cities of Lima and Callao and reduce seismic vulnerability through a National School Infrastructure Plan and Structural Retrofitting Program (p. 1).

Results & Achievements

• The Government of Peru has developed an updated national seismic hazard map and conducted a seismic risk assessment of 1,512 public schools in 48 districts in Lima and Callao.
• The Geophysical Institute of Peru and the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru were trained to conduct seismic risk assessments and can now expand and replicate this in other cities and regions in Peru.
• The Ministry of Education conducted a School Infrastructure Census of 50,000 public schools integrated with a seismic risk assessment.
• The Government of Peru is now integrating a Structural Retrofitting Program into the School Infrastructure National Plan to ensure the safety of 2 million of students nationwide (p. 1).