Struggles to obtain water

...Who are we...? Are we perhaps the stepchildren [of the government]? Because when something happens with the Majes canal they immediately come running to repair it, but when something happens with our own Coporaque canal nobody comes to our assistance and we have to deal with it on our own ... (Opinion of a Coporaqueño, expressed in a meeting between water users of the community of Coporque and the official water authorities, October 2006).

When this Coporaqueño refers to himself and his neighbours as 'stepchildren', he not only expressed a demand for governmental attention to a very specific maintenance problem of the Coporaque canal but also drew attention to the bias of state interventions in the area. As such, his question provides a clear indication of the asymmetrical relationship. There are those who are considered the 'lawful beneficiaries' (citizens) who belong to and are included in the logic of the national project of development and modernization. Then there are the 'others' who fall outside of this logic. Rather than just a call for inclusion, however, the question also entailed a demand for changing the terms of inclusion, and for changing the nature and direction of the national project of development.

Coporaque is one of the 16 Andean communities of the Colca Valley, located on the right bank of the Colca river (3,600 m.o.s.l), called the watershed of Colca-Majes-Siguas¹ (CMS). In contrast to neighbouring communities, Coporaque is the only community that has succeeded in bringing water from the Colca river to its lands. Although initially part of an attempt of four communities (Coporaque, Ichupampa, Lari and Madrigal, situated on the right bank of the CMS), only people from Coporaque succeeded in accessing the water. At the start of the project (in the 1980s), the leaders of the four communities joined their efforts in an attempt to convince the politicians and the planners that a new multi-communal irrigation project was needed to solve their problems of water shortage. In fact, not only these four communities, but all 16 villages of the valley faced problems with acquiring enough water to irrigate their 10,500 ha of irrigable land. Most of this land had been irrigated since time immemorial, as the still-present ancient terraces² built in the Collaguas and Cabanas cultures testify. However, less water is available nowadays and only around 40 percent of these lands could still be cultivated in 2007. The water problem was especially severe in Coporaque and Lari, where farmers could only irrigate their crops once every 70 or 90 days.

The leaders of the four communities asked for approval and funds for their project from the central government as well as permission from the official water authority to construct an intake-canal and make use of those waters of the Colca River that remained after the upstream deviation by the Majes Irrigation Project (MIP) in 1983. To reduce costs, they promised that most of the wage labour needed for construction would be contributed by the local community through their customary collective work, faenas. Obtaining the approval from the government was hard, but obtaining the funds to initiate the project proved even more difficult. The leaders had to travel frequently to Lima (a trip that took three days of travel) to receive money that was used up in the pre-feasibility study costs. Even after some years, the money to begin the construction was not released, to the despair of the leaders who felt that the government was not there for them. Only the Coporaqueños had enough stamina to persist and finally succeeded. They built eight kilometres of canal (280 l/sec) and 0.5 km of tunnel. In November 2007, the last section of the canal was still being constructed.

Constructing the canal and the tunnel was a huge effort for the people of Coporaque, not only in terms of labour and time investments (more than 20 years) but also in terms of continuous political battles with the governmental apparatus, against corruption and favouritism including the local Mayor misusing the project's funds. As a consequence, the structures of the canal were weak and the Coporaqueños have to repair it three or four times in a year.

The enormous efforts and troubles of the Coporaqueños to gain minimal support from the government contrast starkly with the enormous amounts of money and energy that the government spent every year on the MIP.

The Majes Irrigation Project (MIP)

The Majes Irrigation Project is a large-scale irrigation system that aimed in its first stage to turn 22,000 ha of arid lands of the Majes desert (Pampas de Majes, 1,300 m.o.s.l.) into a highly modern and profitable agriculture oriented towards growing commercial export crops. The MIP was first envisioned and designed as early as the beginning of the 1940s. It was considered, together with other large-scale irrigation projects alongside the coast of Peru, as a key element of the modernization of the Arequipa region in Peru. The large-scale surface irrigation systems were a mark of that era's development investments worldwide. The 'green revolution' led to top-down, standardized and 'integrated' projects that aimed to modernize agriculture through improved high-yielding seeds and modern water control methods. It also included the resettlement of people, development of roads, generation of electricity and reform of land tenure systems. Such projects were carried out by centrally financed bureaucratic institutions, highly dependent on international funds. Rural people were seen as beneficiaries, dependent for their welfare and development on the standardized package of inputs and training provided by the government (Vermillion, 2000; Zwarteveen, 2006). The MIP was a prototype example of such a project.

In 1971, the leftist Peruvian president Velazco Alvarado started the construction of the MIP. It was completed in eleven years. The MIP consists of a very sophisticated network of reservoirs, tunnels, aqueducts and canals (Figure 1). The first reservoir, Condoroma, has a storing capacity of 285 MCM (million cubic meters) of water, which is released into the Colca River, and stored in a second reservoir-intake, situated in Tuti (one of the first villages of the Colca Valley), 70 km downstream. This second reservoir captures 276 MCM water from the upper-intermediate part of the watershed. At this point all the water, 523 MCM or 10–13 m³/sec, is deviated to the Pampas of Majes, through 88 km of tunnels (conduction capacity of 34 m³/sec) and 12 km of open canal. All these flows of water (15 m³/sec) are again released into the Siguas' river, and almost 30 km downriver the water is captured by the intake of Tipay, and from here water is conducted to the 'Pampas' of Majes.

Figure 1.

Full figure (261K)

The Peruvian government invested US$ 1,320 million in MIP. Of this, 980 million were lost a 'fondo perdido' of the external debt. A comparison of the government investments in the Pampas de Majes irrigation infrastructures with those in the Colca Valley shows how Peruvian policies favoured a specific type of development to promote modernity and the 'modern farmer'. In the first stage of MIP, 22,000 ha were expected to be converted to irrigated production (though only 15,000 ha have been to date). The government has invested around US$ 60,000 ha to turn arid and unproductive land into fertile agricultural soils. For each farmer (2,587 farmers received land in the area), the government invested US$ 510,243.

In the same period, the government invested only US$ 1.85 million in the improvement and rehabilitation of irrigation infrastructure in the Colca Valley (ATDR, 2006). This amounts to US$ 176,00/ha or US$ 312 per farmer (there are 5,923 farmers in the Colca Valley).

In this model of modernity, there is no discursive or political space for inhabitants of the Colca Valley. Their existing ways of farming and irrigating or their rights to the waters of the Colca River are not acknowledged. The MIP uses water from the upper part of the watershed (4,158 m.a.s.l.), negatively affecting the availability of the water for the inhabitants of the Colca Valley. MIP in many ways threatened (and continues to threaten) the livelihood security of these inhabitants. For instance, one of the downstream effects of deviating the complete flow of the river's water in Tuti is that the river regularly runs dry for more than 300 km, only 70 km downstream of the first dam, the Presa Condorama (see figure 1). The risk is that the area turns into a closed watershed. There is also a worrying decline in the fish population. Fish, an important source of food in the valley, have been negatively affected by MIP. Another major effect of the diversion of the Colca River's waters is that many fountains and springs on the left bank of the river have dried up. Because the water is now diverted through tunnels, there is no longer any subterranean seepage to feed fountains and springs. The farmers who relied on these water sources for their crops have complained to the government and demanded the return of their water. They even threatened to damage the canal unless the government paid attention to their demands. After almost ten years of rolling protests and activism, which also engaged NGOs, the government gave permission to construct off-takes from the canal in order to re-allocate some of the water to the eight villages on the left bank. The water is still not enough to meet the water needs of these villages. Some of them, like Pinchollo village, were compelled to build and open a valve illegally to replace water from the MIP canal in 2005. As they had no permission from the water authorities the villages were fined.

How is it possible that the 6,000 families living in the Colca Valley were completely overlooked during the diagnosis, design and construction process of the MIP? Ignoring the peasants of the Colca Valley is typical of many irrigation modernization efforts, which is based not only on the scientific control of water but also the disciplining of human behaviour. Irrigation engineers see existing customs of indigenous farmers as backward and running counter to their civilizing project (Gilmartin, 1994: 1136; Bolding et al., 1995). To build their dreams of modernity and civilization, engineers aimed to eliminate as much as possible unwanted interferences by 'local communities', largely through technical means. Modernity and civilization would come about through the 'liberation of Man from Nature'. The new irrigation system were embedded in a concept of modernity that is individualist and profit maximizing. The proper, scientific, functioning of the irrigation system not only required a modern farmer but also actively helped produce such individuals. The layout and size of irrigated plots, the prescribed cropping patterns and all agricultural support and credit services were geared towards a 'modern' farmer. The people eligible to settle on the newly irrigated land were selected to match most closely the ideal type (Zwarteveen, 2006), the so-called 'lettered' people (de la Cadena, 2004) who belong to a privileged culture. This way of thinking continuously marginalized the 'others', the indigenous peasants who do not fit into the logic of a modernization project, even as beneficiaries.

Modern dreams vs indigenous knowledge and culture

MIP is embedded in a huge techno-scientific apparatus of modern development with AUTODEMA (Autoridad Autónoma de Majes), the administrative authority in charge of managing the system. AUTODEMA supervised the maintenance of the major infrastructural work, and were responsible for the efficient management and control of water according to the designed irrigation module. They were in charge of organizing the allocation of newly irrigable lands and the promotion of market-oriented agriculture based on the 'green revolution' model. Interestingly, AUTODEMA was simultaneously given the tasks of implementer and of judge, since they were also asked to evaluate the environmental and social effect of the MIP in Colca and Siguas.³

AUTODEMA is financed from the public budget. The Peruvian government spends annually US$ 33 (8 million for infrastructure insurance, 22 million for staff of AUTODEMA). This amount is in marked contrast to the negligible public expenditure on most Andean irrigation systems, the costs of which are mainly borne by the local water users. These local water systems are undertaken through the collective work of 'faenas', with ancestral ceremonies and water 'rituals', like the 'Harqa Haspiy' and the 'Mallku Chaskiy' feast (cleaning of the canal and reception of the water spirit or sentient water entity). These activities contribute to the activities of a series of social networks based on reciprocal relationships, the enforcement of familiar ties and the construction of communal and water actors and authorities, where women have a prominent role (Vera, 2004).

The most visible traditional water authorities are the 'regidor of Urinsaya' and the 'regidor of Hanansaya' (the water mayors). Changing annually, these regidores are in charge of distributing water year and organizing the water feast, which entails: the collective cleaning of the irrigation infrastructure or Yarqa Haspiy, the reception of the Mallku (Valderrama and Escalante, 1988; Vera and Zwarteveen, 2007). The organization of the collective work for the cleaning of the canals and reservoirs is done together with the authorities of the Comisión de Regantes. Almost all these works and ceremonies occur in four days in August when Coporaqueños combine intensive physical labour, pilgrimage, spiritual worship and gift giving to the fountains and springs from where the Mallku emerges, as well as to the mother earth (Pacha Mama) and Apus (the snow mountains).

The importance of water in local traditions and community organization had already been observed by the first Spanish chroniclers who arrived in Peru (Bouysse, 1987: 13; Carrión, 2005: 31) in the 16th and 17th centuries. Colonial attempts to annihilate this water culture or 'diabolic practices', as they used to be called, have been without success. Many authors, like Gelles (2002), Yauri (2006), and Rostworowski (2000) describe how traditional water rituals and ceremonies were present 500 years ago, in spite of many other changes associated with the trans-cultural colonization process. These traditional water systems continue to be associated with the so-called backwardness and superstitions 'indios', 'serranos (Andeans)' 'cholos' or 'indigenous' (de la Cadena, 2007). Indigenous water systems have been and continue to be labelled as 'anomalous', 'abnormal' and even 'unnatural' by those who propagate modern 'universal' models of water management. Existing ways of managing and using water in many Andean communities are not seen and judged on their own merits and terms but are evaluated against the universal and ideal model (Escobar, 1995; Boelens and Zwarteveen, 2005).

Placed as the other

Such a stigma of anomaly and abnormality of the Andean region explains why the people in the Colca Valley were not considered when the MIP was designed and implemented. In order to develop a 'modern' agriculture in the Colca Valley indigenous peoples were not considered by the design engineers. The labelling of the Colca peasants as 'backward', 'illiterate', 'poor' and of their agriculture as 'inaccessible to markets' justified their exclusion from the irrigation modernization project.

As soon as MIP started the diagnostic stage, the engineers changed the native name of Hatun Mayu (big river in English) to that of the Colca River. 'Development has [..] been fundamentally about mapping and making, about the special reach of power and the control and management of other peoples, territories, environments, and places' (Crush, 1995). The developmentalist and modernist discourse and their spatial images and metaphors have always been used to define what development is and does (Slater, 1993) in order to justify intervention (Mitchell, 1995) but in the MIP case, it was used to justify non-intervention.

Conclusion

Escobar (2007) suggests a critical interpretation of modernity from the perspective of coloniality, allows a better understanding of the marginalization of the cultures and knowledges of subaltern groups by hegemonic discourses. He suggests a radical and visionary project of redefining and reconstructing the local and regional worlds from the perspectives of cultural, economic and ecological differences. This vision is based on the reading of the discourses and practices of communities as alternatives to modernity. When seen from this perspective, indigenous peoples in maintaining their own water culture are resisting politically and religiously the hegemonic discourses of development and modernization (Escobar, 2007) propagated through the MIP. By choosing not to join these discourses and practices of modernity, Andean communities also invited their own marginalization from mainstream processes of development. In Peru (like in Ecuador), this created a clear spatial divide between the coastal region, where white and criollo people lived and associated with development, and the Andean region, which was related with tradition and backwardness and where Indians and Mestizos lived. Marginalizing the people and their cultural practices, they have also marginalized the geographical place.

The people from the Colca Valley pursue a dual strategy to obtain legitimacy as citizens and water-right holders. On the one hand, they actively affirm their own culture, language and traditions to demonstrate their own 'otherness'. On the other, they pragmatically and strategically appropriate and borrow elements of these same hegemonic discourses and insert those into their own modes of thinking and doing to construct a dynamic alternative to modernity and development.

Notes

¹ The Colca-Majes-Siguas Watershed is situated alongside the occidental Andes and part of the coastal region of Arequipa in Peru, between 800 and 4,850 m.o.s.l., and its main tributary of water is the Colca's river. This region is considered a dry and dessert area, although the precipitations in the upper part can reach on average to 629.8 mm/year (series of 20 years of SENAMI, Spanish name, Servicio Nacional de Información Meteorológica). In the intermediate part of the watershed, rain can reach on average to 482.6 mm/year (series of the last ten years), and in the lower part (Majes and Siguas), it does not rain at all.

² The Colca Valley's terraces, together with the 'Condor's cross', are actually one of the main attractions for the hundreds of tourists who visit this place every day.

³ Because of the over-utilization of water, two times (1–1.2 l/sec) that of the designed irrigation module (0.5–0.6 l/sec), and the high use of agro-chemical inputs, most of the fertile and high productive lands of Siguas' Valley (eight villages) have been salinized and buried by sand.

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