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Mauricio is 81, and has noticed the seasons in his home of Piedra del Toro in Peru are becoming more unpredictable. Recently, his community has been hit by unusually intense rainfall which washed away low-lying buildings.

Mauricio says: "We can't live in such a vulnerable area without being prepared. So we're coming together to see how we can cope. We don't build our houses in areas threatened by the river. We coordinate with authorities to make drains and channel the water."

Peru is the most water-stressed country in Latin America and will be heavily affected by climate change, yet it produces just 0.1 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions.

Peru is the most water-stressed country in Latin America and will be heavily affected by climate change, yet it produces just 0.1 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions.

Its vulnerabilities are many: its small producers depend on diminishing rainfall or glacial melt for their agriculture; it is very prone to avalanches, mudslides, droughts and floods; and the majority of its energy is hydroelectric, dependent on the rivers fed by its ever-decreasing glaciers.

But melting glaciers aside, Peru presents an apparently mixed picture on climate change. It seems to be everything at once: wetter, drier, hotter, colder. Despite this, what is certain is that the weather is changing, and it’s the unpredictability of the change that presents the greatest danger.

Small farmers manage their crops according to the wet or dry seasons, known as agricultura de secano (rain-fed agriculture). In the past, farmers could predict the weather and the correct times to sow. As the weather has become more unpredictable, small farmholdings are suffering.

These unpredictable weather patterns – and in particular extreme cold and dry periods – bring new pests and crop diseases and ruin the natural production cycle of certain plants. Increasingly intensive rains cause problems too: inadequate adobe housing, healthcare for children and the elderly who are affected by the damp.

To cope with this increasingly unreliable climate, communities have to work together. They are protecting the most vulnerable, and already exploring ways to secure water supplies and use water more efficiently, diversify crops, and defend themselves against disasters which come with growing regularity.

Mauricio’s village had experienced unusually intense rains between January and March in 2008, which had destroyed low-lying agriculture and infrastructure, and contaminated the drinking water. Here, the civil defence committee, supported by Oxfam's partner CIPCA, is helping the community get prepared. It is also planning to build a dam and a reservoir to provide water all year round.

Country climate reference: What happened to the Seasons?, Oxfam GB Research Report, October 2009. Jennings, Dr Steve & John Magrath

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Mauricio infront of his house. Photo: Gilvan Barreto

The Disaster Risk Reduction Committee talk to local children. Photo: Gilvan Barreto

Stream in Piedra del Toro, Morropon Photo: Gilvan Barreto

The Committee assess houses which back onto the river in La Huaquilla Photo: Gilvan Barreto

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