Clash over water kills one and injures 18 in Peru

Peruvian police and protesters opposed to an irrigation project in the country's South clashed on Thursday, killing one man and injuring 18, as President Alan Garcia faces a new conflict over natural resources in the surging economy. The country's human rights office said the skirmish occurred before dawn in the town of Espinar, 400 miles south of Lima. Police fought with protesters who say the Majes-Siguas II irrigation project will leave Espinar without water, said Silvio Campana of the rights office, which tries to mediate conflicts. The man who died was a bystander. The project calls for a dam and water system capable of irrigating 95,000 acres of agricultural land in the region of Arequipa. Dozens of conflicts over natural resources have weighed on Garcia, whose disapproval rating is near 60 percent. Last year, three dozen people died in a clash over land in the Amazon jungle where indigenous tribes oppose oil exploration. Water is a sensitive issue in Peru as desert covers its Pacific Ocean coast, where most of the population lives, and its Andean glaciers are melting because of climate change.