The El Niño phenomena affects a great portion of South America, especially the northern coast of Peru where the River Piura flows into the Pacific Ocean. During the mega El Niño events, in 1983 and 1998, large areas of the Department of Piura suffered serious flood damage. This paper describes the construction of a physical model for studying the flow of the Piura River. The model was commisssioned as a direct result of the river flood damage that occurred during the 1998 El Niño. The model is located at the Institute of Hydraulics, Hydrology, and Sanitary of the Univ. de Piura, Perú © ASCE.