When we talk about the great Peru, we imagine the beautiful ruins of the Inca city or Titicaca lake, the highest navigable lake in the world. But we would probably never think that in this country surrounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west of South America, it would find itself in some places in a situation as regrettable as it is dangerous in terms of cabling. It is completely unacceptable that the habitants or travelers of the city of Cuzco, located in south east of Peru, have to see and suffer the “web of cables” that you see as you walk through its streets.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the electrical wiring boom emerged, improving the standard of living in cities and towns, as it is able to deliver electricity to remote locations. In this way, the habitants could use light bulbs and light their homes, without the need to use candles as they had been doing for years. These cables were only aerial and were supported on poles. Later, and with the new inventions, new types of cables arose, which were capable of bringing internet, television, etc. to the different homes also by means of aerial cabling. With these new acquisitions the posts were carrying more weight than they could accept. In order not to make the situation worse and to prevent them from falling to the ground, they began to support themselves on facades.
It is necessary to know the dangers that the state of the cables can cause over time. These dangerous cables have a notable visual contamination since it is not the same to see a clean facade, painted; to see a facade full of cables even blocking windows. When the poles were built to support the wiring they were far from the city, but now? At the moment, the poles are in the middle of the sidewalks, between houses, as the city has developed and grown. In some cases, the cables do not comply with the regulations and descend 2 meters from the height of the standard set, due to the weight of these.
Can you imagine what could happen if a child played football in the middle of the road? What if he crossed a zebra crossing without looking? Unfortunately, nothing good could happen. What surprises me is that governments see the dangers of the two cases just mentioned, but not of what could happen if an electrical wiring falls to the ground, or if a child touches an electrical wire that is within their reach.
Four years ago, the two main companies owning this cabling had to remove the cables and replace their overhead cabling with underground cabling. The subway has many more advantages than the previous one, since you can rely much more on this type of cables that go under the ground, since they do not threaten the safety of the population. It must also be said that, as they are not seen, it does not break the aesthetics of the facades. The biggest problem of this is its high price for burying. Among the reasons why the price of the underground is high, is that being underground the cables need a covering, which in the air is not necessary. It is also true that the fact of putting everything under the ground is to give the rodents the option to enjoy a “great delicacy” and leave without electricity the entire population of a city.
In my humble opinion, I think the big question is: do you think it would be too expensive to replace overhead cabling with underground cabling, in order to eliminate the risks to life posed by the former? Or which is more important the safety of the population of Cuzco or save the costs of undergrounding? I know that spending is very high and the easiest thing is to keep it that way for the government saying that nothing has happened yet, that no one has died. But how long is he gonna hold out like that? Do we have to wait until something happen to improve? I believe that the safety of the citizens of a big city is of paramount importance, and if we have to take away budgets from other sides, we will have to reduce them, since health comes first.
Lander García Oleaga
