1 ATTEMPTING TO BRIDGE THE URBAN DIVIDE IN CITIES OF THE DEVELOPING WORLD. THE CASE OF LIMA, PERU. Ana María Fernández-Maldonado Delft University of Technology fernande@bk.tudelft.nl KEY WORDS Basic services infrastructures; informal neighborhoods; privatization of basic services, water networks; public transport networks; urban divide; developing countries; Lima. INTRODUCTION “Blocks of flats or offices are under construction on nearly every street. New hotels and restaurants sprout on every corner, while shopping centres multiply in what were once shantytowns. Across the city, thoroughfares have been torn up to make way for new bus lanes and terminals. Such is the anarchic volume of traffic that just crossing the street has become a time-consuming and perilous exercise. Lima, Peru's capital of 8m people, is shedding its former air of provincial lassitude and turning into a bustling metropolis. The city is the visible face of a boom that has made Peru South America's fastest-growing economy.” (The Economist, 2008a:56) Indeed, after many years of crisis and high instability, Peru’s economy is rapidly growing. After 2001, Peru’s average rate of growth (as percentage of the GDP) has been more than 4%, and since 2005, 2% more than than the average of Latin American countries (see Figure 1). The consequences of the booming economy in the capital city have been contradictory. On the one hand, private and public investments are rapidly changing Lima’s face in both the ‘formal’ and the ‘informal city’; on the other hand, the lack of, or deficient planning is producing a visible increase of Lima’s traditional urban chaos. Someone visiting Lima in April 2008 could verify –simply by reading the local news—how the lack of planning has produced not only a chaotic city, but also a very critical situation in the basic services, especially visible in two sectors that have a great influence in the quality of life of the citizens: water/sanitation and mobility. On April the 19 th , the government declared Lima’s sewerage system in state of emergency, due to risks related to the old age (more than 50 years) of the sewerage mains, and the collapse of a sewerage collector. On the other hand, the citizens are angry because of the chaotic traffic as a consequence of the simultaneous works of upgrading of the