Political efforts to increase access include the program Agua para todos which started in 2006 under President Alan García (see below).

[11] The great majority of sewage of the Lima-Callao metropolitan area is discharged without treatment into the ocean, resulting in serious contamination of the surrounding beaches.

[18] Financing for another wastewater treatment plant in La Atarjea has been secured in February 2014 through a 48,66 million Euro loan from the German development bank KfW.

Peru contains over two-thirds of all tropical glaciers[19] which provide important water sources for the dry western half of the country.

These glaciers are rapidly melting as a result of climate change,[19] making the flow of rivers more irregular, leading to more droughts and floods.

A report by a team from the World Bank published in June 2007 in the bulletin of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) predicts that many of the lower glaciers in the Andes will be gone in the next decade or so, and that glacial runoff may dry up altogether within 20 years.

The last comprehensive satellite survey by Peru's National Environmental Council, carried out in 1997, found that the area covered by glaciers had shrunk by 22% since the early 1960s.

As global temperatures increase, these areas are at higher risk of not obtaining steady access to water in already limited amounts.

For example, the Rimac, Chillon, and Lurin River are all central to Peru's water supply, and are not equipped to handle the growing population.

According to the National Sanitation Plan, it is inadmissible that with such high levels of production water supply remains intermittent in many cities.

[27] However, indigenous infrastructure was put under strain as population centers grew along the dry western coast of Peru; additionally, under colonial policy surplus water withdrawals were encouraged to aid gold and silver mining (as opposed to agriculture).

[27] Over the course of the following centuries, rural areas preserved a mix of colonial and indigenous water practices while urban centers like Lima continued to develop along the European model.

[36] This affirmation resulted in a renewed push for centralized infrastructure via public-private partnerships, with corporations building and operating for an initial period before ownership is re-assumed by the state.

Its functions are to regulate and supervise service providers, approve tariffs, establish norms, impose sanctions for violations of the law, and resolve user controversies and complaints.

[40] Its Board consists of five members nominated as follows: The Peruvian Constitution of 1993 bestows the responsibility of water and sanitation service provision to the city councils.

The Ley Orgánica de Municipalidades (Law Nº 27972) states that the function of the provincial municipalities is to directly or by concession administer and regulate the water service, sewage, and drainage.

[43] This happens although the majority of the EPS are made up of several provincial municipalities, which in theory should decrease the influence of city governments and reduce the political interference in the administration of companies.

Nearly all of the country's service providers remain weak in financial and institutional aspects, as well as in human resources, despite attempts to strengthen them.

A key function in the water and sanitation sector that is frequently neglected is the support to communal organizations that provide services, mainly in rural areas.

The WHO observed that in 2000 the municipal participation in assistance to rural services was insufficient to different extents, ranging from its total exclusion to the need for support in the preparation of the technical records and the complete integration in the planning, financing, and construction supervision processes.

[46] The Ministry of Health (MINSA) is also participating in the sector through the General Director's Office of Environmental Health (DIGESA) and the Executive Director's Office on Basic Sanitation (DESAB), entities which exert functions in the aspects pertaining to sanitary and water quality for human consumption and the protection of a healthy environment.

The National Cooperation Fund for Social Development (FONCODES), created in 1991, channels resources to investing in marginalized rural and urban areas in various sectors including potable water and sanitation.

In 2006-07 nine small towns (between 5,000 and 25,000 inhabitants) across Peru introduced a new water and sanitation management model, under which the community is being more empowered, including through deciding themselves about a certain level of service quality, such as low-cost technologies, and corresponding tariffs.

[49] To combat the challenges of derelict infrastructure and environmental degradation,[49] EcoSwell primarily constructs physical WASH projects with the help of local residents and interns, including bio-remediation for wastewater management, dry toilets, grey water reuse, desalination, and groundwater monitoring.

In many urban areas it is common to spend significant sums to water tanker operators, which are prevalent because of intermittent supply and deficient coverage.

According to a 2008 national survey by Radio RPP, respondents indicated that, on average, they paid 44 Soles (close to US$15) per month and per household for water.

[58] The government contracted studies for the elaboration of this model with the support from the Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF), a World Bank trust fund, and later from the IDB.

[61] Investments are financed through programs providing subsidies to municipal utilities, as well as to a limited extent by internal cash generation and debt.

[20] Multilateral financial institutions including the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Andean Development Corporation (CAF) as well as bilateral cooperation agencies (the German KfW and GTZ, the Canadian CIDA, and the Japanese JICA (ex-JBIC), among others) play an important role in investment financing and in technical assistance in the sector.

Assistance to segments of the sector, differentiated by the size of localities, is provided by different donors: An example of this support is the agreement signed in September 2009 by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to provide a loan for up to $60 million for the North Lima Metropolitan Area Water Supply and Sewerage Optimization Project.