Just Water Allocation in the Dulcepamba Watershed
Current Reflections - Water first for campesinos
One of the buses picking people up in San Pablo de Amalí
Monday, April 9, 2018, 4:00am-- It was a foggy morning as the large coach buses climbed the steep slopes around tight curves up the Dulcepamba Watershed, picking up small groups of campesino farmers from dozens of communities huddled on the road along the way. Some of them had hiked more than an hour already that morning to meet the buses that would take them to Guaranda, the provincial capital 3 hours up the mountains. By the time we reached San Pablo de Atenas, the largest town at the top of the watershed (located at roughly 3,100 meters above sea level), every seat in the buses was filled and everyone was quietly braced for the coming confrontation with the Ecuadorian Secretariat of Water (SENAGUA) and the hydroelectric company, Hidrotambo.
Over the past year and a half, Hidrotambo, S.A., the private company that owns the small 8MW run-of-the-river hydroelectric project in the Dulcepamba River, submitted 4 oppositions directly challenging the water adjudication (rights) applications of two local farming families that need water for their homes, livestock and irrigation upstream of the hydroelectric facility. We were headed to Guaranda for the administrative hearings arbitrated by SENAGUA between Ramiro Peñaherrera and Enerio Quinatoa, the two farmers, and Hidrotambo. In these hearings SENAGUA would decide whether to heed Hidrotambo’s oppositions and deny the farmers their water rights, or recognize that Hidrotambo’s oppositions are illegitimate due to the fact that the Constitution of Ecuador prioritizes water rights for small-scale farming above all industrial uses.
One of 4 oppositions Hidrotambo submitted in response to San Pablo de Amalí farmer, Enerio Quinatoa's water adjudication application. Hidrotambo states that this individual farmer's water use negatively affects the company's investment because he diverts water that would otherwise reach its facility downstream.
Ramiro Peñahererra, who draws water just upstream of Hidrotambo's intake facility to irrigate his cacao, bananas, and oranges, also received 4 oppositions to his water adjudication application from Hidrotambo.
Hidrotambo alleged in its oppositions that these two families and all of the other 3,500 farming families upstream of their intake works are requesting water rights simply to “damage” the hydroelectric project, but that they don’t actually need water. They go on to say that therefore SENAGUA should deny all upstream water rights and fine any farmer who uses water without a right. The minimum fine for using water without a water right is $18,000 USD.
When the private company, Hidrotambo, S.A. first proposed its 8MW run-of-the-river hydroelectric project in the early 2000s, despite their low levels of formal education and lack of any formal hydrological or engineering training, the farmers of the Dulcepamba Watershed knew there would not be enough water in the dry season to operate the facility. That was one of many reasons they actively opposed the project from the beginning. Fourteen years later, despite the community opposition, the hydro project was built and has been operating intermittently for two years, only running one of its two turbines in the dry season months for lack of water.
Looking downstream at Hidrotambo's intake works during the dry season.
Anticipating that Hidrotambo would grow desperate for more water when it could not run its facility at capacity, the farmers of the watershed, with the support of the Dulcepamba Project, have taken on two fundamental strategies to secure their water rights:
1. Collective Opposition
"Water first for the campesinos"
April 9, 2018 - Gerardo Valverde outside SENAGUA's Guaranda office
Over 100 representatives of the 140 small farming communities upstream of the hydroelectric facility submitted a formal opposition to Hidrotambo’s water adjudication application, which the company submitted in 2016. The opposition cited a water availability analysis conducted by the University of California, Davis that demonstrates that the amount of water the company currently has a right to and had reapplied for, plus the required environmental flow, did not exist in the Dulcepamba River 69% of the days in the past 7 years. When consumptive uses are granted to the thousands of upstream farmers, there will be even less water in the river for the hydroelectric project and environmental flows. The UC Davis study also cited the Ecuadorian Constitution and Water Law, which clearly identify water rights priorities based on types of use so that human consumption, small-scale agriculture that supports food sovereignty, and environmental flows must be satisfied before water rights are granted for industrial use.
In February, 2017 SENAGUA suspended Hidrotambo’s water adjudication as a result of the farmers’ opposition and opened an investigation into several of the factors that the farmers cited in their complaint. This seemed like a promising step in the right direction, but near the end of the year, SENAGUA closed their investigation and granted Hidrotambo their full-requested water right with no valid explanation for their decision. The decision has been appealed and is currently being analyzed by the Secretary of Water of Ecuador, Humberto Cholango.
June 20, 2017 - Dulcepamba Watershed community lawyer, Fredy Galeas (purple shirt) briefing 90 watershed community representatives outside SENAGUA's Guayaquil office who traveled there to follow up on the opposition they submitted to Hidrotambo's water rights application in November 2016.
During 69% of the days in 2010 - 2017, there was not enough water in the Dulcepamba River to satisfy Hidrotambo's water adjudication plus the required environmental flow.
- University of California Davis Center for Watershed Sciences
2. Individual and Community-Level Actions
Before Hidrotambo threatened thousands of farmers' water access, the vast majority of farming families in the Dulcepamba Watershed used water sources informally, without going through the lengthy administrative process of applying for water rights. However with their water access at risk, it became necessary for the communities to “perfect” their rights. With the help of the Dulcepamba Protect, over 800 farmers and farming communities upstream of Hidrotambo’s intake facility have applied for their own water adjudications over the past 4 years.
The law requires all water rights applications to be resolved within 90 days, but despite our weekly visits the SENAGUA’s Guaranda office, all but a handful of these applications are still sitting in SENAGUA’s file cabinets unresolved. The lack of resolution is partially due to a lack of SENAGUA technicians available to do inspections, the last step in the water adjudication process—But especially with Hidrotambo’s opposition to Ramiro Peñahererra and Enerio Quinatoa’s adjudication applications, along with several other events (detailed in the video below), it has become clear that the bottleneck in SENAGUA is being actively influenced and encouraged by Hidrotambo.
This video was made for the Secretary of Water, Humberto Cholango to help him understand the gravity of the water rights conflict in the Dulcepamba Watershed. Previously in his role as President of ECUARUNARI, the largest indigenous organization in Ecuador, Cholango supported San Pablo de Amalí in its resistance to Hidrotambo, but thus far has not done anything to resolve the ongoing conflict in his role as Secretary of Water.
April 9, 2018 - Signs that Dulcepamba Watershed farmers carried at the protest in front of SENAGUA's Guaranda office. From left to right they read: 1. "As a campesino (peasant farmer), I have the priority in access to water" 2. "I have been waiting for 990 days" (in reference to Carlos Prado's water adjudication application). 3. "I have been waiting for 4 years. SENAGUA archived my process without reason" (In reference to Marlene Cabeza's water adjudication application)
- See video for more context.
Hidrotambo vs. Quinatoa - April 9, 2018 Hearing
Lawyer Yaku Perez, the (current) President of ECAURUNARI, the biggest and most influential indigenous organization in Ecuador, represented Enerio Quinatoa in the first hearing. Hidrotambo’s lawyer immediately tried to derail the hearing by claiming that Enerio Quinatoa has an invalid government issued ID. He used other crude, false, and irrelevant tactics to divert the attention of the hearing throughout, which resulted in 3 grueling hours of discussion. Finally, he conceded that Hidrotambo would withdraw its opposition to Enerio Quinatoa’s water rights application on the one condition that SENAGUA would not grant water rights to the 800+ other individual and community applicants located upstream of Hidrotambo's facility. Yaku Perez, immediately replied on behalf of the communities saying, "we are not here to beg, nor to settle, because water rights are constitutionally guaranteed and must be given to every farmer in the watershed." The hearing ended without any decision by SENAGUA, and SENAGUA ordered both sides to submit further evidence over the next 10 days. Ramiro Peñahererra’s hearing was postponed to June, 2018.
April 9, 2018 - Dr. Yaku Perez, President of ECUARUNARI and legal representative of the Dulcepamba Watershed communities addresses the crowd in front of SENAGUA's Guaranda office before entering the hearing.
April 9, 2018 - Dr. Martina Nebbiai, tenured professor at the Central University of Ecuador, and the Academic Representative on SENAGUA's newly formed Plurinational Multicultural Advisory Board speaks to the campesinos of the Dulcepamba Watershed in front of SENAGUA's Guaranda office. Nebbiai is a fierce advocate for the campesinos, but even with her position on SENAGUA's Advisory Board, she was not allowed in the room during the hearing.
Meanwhile, farmers representing dozens of Dulcepamba Watershed communities stood outside SENAGUA’s Guaranda office holding signs demanding that SENAGUA annul Hidrotambo’s water adjudication and process their applications. One by one, each of the farmers walked the three flights of stairs up to the window where SENAGUA receives official documents, and turned in documents demanding that SENAGUA take the next step in their water adjudication application process. Each document specified the number of days the applicant has been waiting, and cited the portion of the Water Law that requires SENAGUA to process applications within 90 days.
April 9, 2018 - School girls walking past the communities' signs after the protest in Guaranda
April 9, 2018 - "First Hidrotambo attacked my village. Then they flooded us and killed my neighbors. Now they want to take my water. What will they do next?" - San Pablo de Amalí residents Carlos Paredes and Marlene Cabezas
Outcome and next steps
The hearing should not have lasted 3 hours and should have been resolved quickly, because the answer is simple: The Secretariat of Water of Ecuador must comply with Ecuadorian Law, and prioritize small-scale farming water rights. But, as with many private extractive hydroelectric, mining, and petroleum companies in Ecuador, Hidrotambo has backing by powerful government officials, and acts like it can dictate the rules.
If SENAGUA denies water rights to the two farming families currently with oppositions, they may try to deny rights for all of the 3,500 families upstream of Hidrotambo. But the farmers who traveled to Guaranda in the cold on Monday morning to protest during the hearing have united, established networks of communication, and are resolved to demand their water rights until they win.
If the rights are denied at SENAGUA's regional office, they will appeal, and they will take the case to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Water. The issue of water access in the Dulcepamba Watershed will also be litigated in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, probably within the next year.
April 9, 2018 - Santa Rosa de Cerritos Water Board President, Raul Rubín speaks about the struggles his community has gone through with SENAGUA over the past 3 years in trying to gain their water rights.
"Energy sovereignty will not be achieved to the detriment of food sovereignty nor will it affect the right to water"
- Article 15, Constitution of Ecuador
April 9, 2018 - David Reyes (black leather jacket), Ecological Engineer at Quito-based environmental advocacy organization, Acción Ecológica, leads elected leaders from each community in a pledge to fight for their communities' water rights and protect Pachamama (Mother Earth) in Guaranda after the hearing.
The whole experience on Monday was both frustrating and heartening: It was frustrating to experience such blatant disregard for the law, but it was also clear that the campesino movement is growing and strengthening. The level of understanding throughout the watershed of the water rights conflict has blossomed, and with that understanding, the people are mobilizing. Also, we have recently gained attention and support from several national figures, such as Yaku Perez and Martina Nebbiai, who are elevating national awareness and attention to the conflict.
We have more tools with our growing datasets, team members, and partners, and more support from our allies (new and old) than ever before. We feel hopeful that we are on the cusp of some very important precedent-setting actions that will help to secure water rights for thousands of farmers, if not bring the water rights issues into the national and international spotlight.
Look out for more updates and stories in the coming weeks, and as always, please ask us questions, share any advice or resources you have, donate to our effort, and let us know what you'd like to hear more about.
The Dulcepamba Team