The Government of Peru’s declared a 90-day environmental emergency for some 90km of shoreline just north of the capital of Lima.
The Government requested support from United Nations to address the various impacts caused by the spill. The deployed team by the UN involved:
• Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs of the United Nations (OCHA)
• United Nations Program for Environment (UNEP) through the UNEP-led Joint Environment Unit (JEU)
• United Nations for the Evaluation and Disaster Case Coordination (UNDAC)
• Civil Protection Mechanism of the European Union (EUCPM)
• Technical experts from the UN and from Europe (identified by JEU with the support of the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism).

The team deployed by the UN is on the ground supporting the Government with response coordination and conducting site visits in affected areas. The technical mission, organized by the UN Joint Environment Unit (JEU), provide the Government with specific analysis and recommendations on disaster management and coordination, and on environmental risk reduction. This mission was strictly advisory in nature, with all agencies and team members working under a system-wide response led by the UN Resident Coordinator.
On January 22, 2022, the team started working with the UN system in Peru, which includes the Team of Humanitarian Advice (HAT) within the Office of the Resident Coordinator of the UN (OCR), to collaborate with the offices national and sub-national government and support coordination between more than 30 state institutions. The team met also with technical staff from the refinery operating company (Repsol).

The Government supported the municipal authorities by activating teams from:
• the Ministry of the Environment;
• the Agency for Environmental Evaluation and Control (OEFA);
• the General Directorate of Environmental Health (DIGESA) of the Ministry of Health;
• the National Service of Natural Areas Protected by the State (SERNANP);
• the Supervisory Agency for Investment in Energy and Mining (OSINERGMIN);
• the National Institute of Civil Defense (INDECI);
• the Armed Forces of Peru;
• the General Directorate of Captaincies and Coast Guard (DICAPI).

Other missions to support the emergency response in Peru are:
• United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
• International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) – experts and monitoring log-term monitoring of costal water in the affected areas.

Actions taken:
- The incident management experts of oil spills and evaluations rapid environmental visits carried out recognition with their technical counterparts of public institutions to start know the impact of the spill. The technicians analyzed the distribution of the spill, the vulnerability of natural resources nearby, the social and human impact of the catastrophe and clean-up methodologies and containment.
- Through a permanent dialogue with the government institutions, municipal authorities and representatives of the oil refinery company (Repsol), technical specialists and experts in team coordination identified short-, medium- and long-term priorities to support oil spill incident management, rapid environmental assessments, response coordination and information management.
- Site visits to the affected areas (Ancón district) by the UN team to ascertain key information (i.e., properties of petroleum - density, viscosity, emulsion -, adverse effects of the spill-over on the surrounding weather and sea, the sensitivity of ecosystems, surrounding communities with their species and habitats, the socio-economic effects, the cleaning methods to be used). The retrieved information aims to better target the requested technical support and environmental assessments, and complement projections on the spill’s evolution to help define further site visits and inform environmental assessments and response recommendations.
- National industry associations and private sector organizations were planning to provide food to affected communities. Long-term food security for these groups and their families probably will continue to be a priority.
- Compensatory bonuses to be provided to people living from the fishing and touristic sectors (in development by several state offices, including the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism, the Ministry of Production, the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Economy and Finance).
- Feedback mechanisms are used to encourage community participation in response and recovery plans and ensure a transparent response and accountability to those affected.

• The spill is endangering the health of communities in five districts.
• Potential health consequences to humans due to the consumption of fish exposed to the harmful oil effects in the long-term.

Authorities describe the situation as the worst ecological disaster in Peru’s recent history.

The affected areas by the oil spills are:
• 1400 hectares of sea and land (more than 700 hectares (7.1 million m2) of water and 180 hectares (1.8 million m2) of coastline).
• more than 500 hectares of marine wildlife reserves in protected natural areas.
• The spill is also affecting wildlife and coastlines (more than 50 linear kilometres of coastline at risk) along five districts north of the spill due to currents pushing the oil north along the shore.
• 90 km of shoreline is placed under environmental emergency.
• Several birds were covered by oil days after the spill, i.e. a poisonous substance that further disables them to repel the water or conserve heat.

A second spill of around 8 barrels took place at the same Repsol refinery during repair work on pipes on 26 January 2022 (confirmed by the Peruvian Navy and Peru’s Supervisory Agency for Investment in Energy and Mining, OSINERGMIN).

52 M USD

The Ministry of the Environment reports that the effects of the spill will likely lead to US$52 million in direct and indirect losses to tourism livelihoods.

• More than 482,000 people live in the affected districts with limited access to basic services.
• The spill-over abruptly interrupted the livelihoods and food security of the affected communities.
• Hundreds of families from these districts are characterized by high levels of poverty, and around a fifth of this population lives from agriculture and fishing and as independent sellers (according to the 2017 national census).
• 3,000 families were affected due to the socio-economic impact of the spill (1,500 families of fishermen and 1,500 workers linked to tourism)
• The spill-over is adversely affecting the local business owners (such as small restaurants and merchants) who depend on tourism.
• The touristic sector is also negatively impacted in other communities that were not officially closed (e.g., Costa Azul, Ancón and Cavero Beach), as authorities warned against visiting them due to potential contamination of those areas.
• The socio-economic impacts add to the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic in Peru.

• The authorities, the refinery personnel and the inhabitants of the affected communities were involved in the clean-up process of the oil along the 80 kilometers of coastline.
• The Armed Forces have deployed personnel to support with clean-up along affected shores.
• The oil company (Repsol) reported to have scaled up clean-up personnel from 1,800 to 2,200 and have deployed more than 70 specialized heavy machinery units, 27 large vessels and 90 boats to tackle the remaining clean-up.

• Other Government bodies (ranging from local authorities, relevant ministries to autonomous regulatory agencies) are developing monitoring protocols and carrying out measures for clean-up, containment, response monitoring, oversight, analysis and potential support measures for affected families, rescue of the endangered wildlife.
• The oil company also indicated that they have installed 4,400m of containment barriers and removed more than 10,000 m3 of affected sands for treatment, or about 2,000 containers’ worth.

• Given the social and ecological activism movement involved in the clean-up operations, the training of the community, the unspecialised people and volunteers is essential in reducing any risks to their health.
• Given the lack of an appropriate infrastructure for the the personnel and volunteers involved in the clean-up process under high temperatures, the development of such an infrastructure is deemed essential as a health and safety measure.

• The unprecedented nature of the environmental emergency for all actors involved revealed that a better understanding of current response and coordination mechanisms at national and sub-national levels is required (i.e., as per the technical advisory mission request and the UN team's continuing development of recommendations on disaster response and coordination, future disaster risk reduction, mitigation, as well as environmental impact analysis to be delivered to authorities).
• Authorities should develop and implement environmental monitoring protocols to understand the full scope of contamination, assess the socio-economic impact, the recovery time, and determine the effectiveness of clean-up operations.
• Authorities should develop and implement health response and risk communications campaigns.
• For the effective respond to future emergencies, incident command systems need to be set up,integrate all responsible for clean-up operations parallel to the national and sub-national authorities, and strengthen their capacities in carrying out damage assessments.

• Clean-up operation in rocks and cliffs are challenging; accumulated oil in these areas can become a source of secondary pollution with longer lasting effects.

• Raising public awareness is essential, given the fact that the affected communities were seeking clarity on support measures and future response plans.
• Humanitarian aid to be provided in affected communities and volunteers that help in the clean-up process.