Peruvian president promises to build infrastructure to endure for 100 years

Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski promised on Monday to rebuild the infrastructure affected by recent floods and landslides, pledging to make it endure for 100 years.

"We have to build properly. We need to have well-anchored bridges, roads with enough concrete and asphalt, pipes that will let water flow for 100 years," said Kuczynski during a tour to the northern region of La Libertad, which was severely affected by natural disasters along with 10 other regions.

The president promised that his government, which has been in office for nine months, would tackle all needed reconstruction and bring about a change in the quality of infrastructure in the country.

"Reconstruction with changes because we cannot keep things as they were," explained Kuczynski, recalling sub-par construction in the past which led to the collapse of bridges, highways, health centers and schools, among others.

The president said his government will not pursue partisan policies as in the past. "The Peruvian people do not want politics without results or success," he said.

He added that the total cost of reconstruction could stand at around 3 billion U.S. dollars in the short term and rise to 9 billion dollars over the next five years.

Peru recently began a full evaluation of the material damage and reconstruction costs of all the infrastructure affected by the combined fury of floods and landslides in 11 regions.

The country's National Emergency Operations Center said that these disasters, sparked by the El Nino weather phenomenon, had damaged 210,000 buildings, 5,796 km of roadways and collapsed 258 bridges. Endi