Overview
- The national government issued Decreto Supremo N.º 140-2026-PCM on Sunday, October 11, putting 707 districts in 17 regions under a 60-day preventive state of emergency to allow immediate risk-reduction, response and rehabilitation actions.
- The decree tasks the Instituto Nacional de Defensa Civil (Indeci) with technical coordination and monitoring while national ministries and regional and local governments must carry out the measures.
- Technical assessments from Indeci, Senamhi, ANA, Cenepred and the Enfen commission report progressive declines in river flows and reservoir volumes and flag El Niño signals as raising the probability of a hydric deficit for the 2026–2027 rainy season.
- More than 2.4 million people are identified as at very high risk of lacking water, and interventions must be directly tied to the hydric hazard and may be adapted as new technical information emerges.
- Financing for the emergency measures must come from the existing budgets of participating institutions, which could limit the speed and scale of interventions while the drought risk also heightens pressures on firefighting and rural livelihoods.